VARIOUS ARTISTS

A familiar face to those who dwell in the deep end of the record pool, Charles is an obsessive digger, always on the

track of an otherwise unheard sound. Through two trips to 'Club Meduse' and star-crossed lovers 'America Dream

Reserve' and 'Black Rain', he's also established himself as a mixtape auteur, weaving together the strange and

beautiful into evocative compilations that transport listeners to distinct, imaginative realms.

While his previous sets resembled Super-8 vignettes, populated by sun-kissed hedonists and drifting outsiders,

'Ambientale' sees Charles leave the human world behind, exploring all the world's wilderness on the scale of an

IMAX epic. Rainforest, savanna, seascape and sand dune blur into one under digital manipulation, questioning

the balance of nature and technology and wondering whether AI might discover the blueprint of all life and all

planets. There's also a little room on the mood board for the striking underwater cinematography and lush

soundtrack of Luc Besson's The Big Blue, a film he first saw in 1987 at an open-air theatre in the same Southern

French resort that inspired 'Club Meduse'.

Bals opens his sonic travelogue with the bamboo flutes and resonant gongs of esteemed Italian maestro Luigi

Ceccarelli, joined by the clean lines and Eastern tonalities of the little-known RanÅ Boru. The journey deepens

with a double-feature from Tokyo composer Akira Mitake, sliding from dreamy New Age soundscapes into the l

ush groove of floral fusion. Digital rhythms and snaking bass add a Latin accent to the bouzouki of Individual

Sensitivity's "Greece Ambientale", while the lilting percussion and shimmering synths of Steve Shehan's smooth

jazz rarity "Evening In The Sahara" segue perfectly into a masterpiece of French Balearic from Private Joke.

A smoky saxophone rises like mist, echoing through the rainfall on Adriano Maria Vitali's "Velvet Blue Circles",

before Masami Tsuchiya pulls us into the depths with the aquatic ambience of 1983's "Never Mind", its electronic

palette the perfect vehicle to ensure that Akira Mitake's "Spectrum" surprises, rather than startles, with its

booming machine drums a superb point of difference. From there, we wander once more into the digital under-

growth, exploring the mystical and magical sounds of the Italian library ensemble Gruppo Sound, along with a

rare glimpse of Blue Note new age from Gil Mellé. Police sirens and street noise signal our return to the city,

forming the backdrop to the tumbling drums and moody electronic stabs of "Ship Out" by Ferris Wheel, an

utterly unknown piece rumoured to be a promotional track from a Venezuelan garbage company - the final

twist of intrigue to this otherworldly voyage.

Patrick Ryder

Tracklisting

A1 Luigi Ceccarelli - Vientianeâ

A2銀色の波 (Gin no nami) - Whispers Of Chikurin)

A3 Akira Mitake - Yasha

A4 Akira Mitake - Modernism

A5 Individual Sensitivity - Greece Ambientale

A6 Steve Shehan - Evening In The Sahara

A7 Private Joke - Peaceful Traffic

B1 Adriano Maria Vitali - Velvet Blue Circles

B2 Masami Tsuchiya - Nevermind

B3 Akira Mitake - Spectrum

B4 Gil Mellà - Mindscape

B5 Gruppo Sound - African Interlude II

B6 Ferris Wheel - Shipping Out