Welcome to Ambient Explorations! This is your first visit so please feel at home. Comments are appreciated! -Flict

Since last week I’ve been immersed in this fresh new compilation released by Shulman and DJ Sahar (owners of Aleph Zero).   After a little disappointment with “Natural Born Chillers 2” (to oriental for my taste most of the time) this time they went for a similar mood that from the amazing “Midnight Soul Dive” compilation released three years ago: serious cutting edge chill and ambient with a quirky high-tech flavour. Do they succeed? Hell yeah!!

All the tracks, without exception, have top-notch production and are filled with fresh ideas and beautiful (and most of the time quite simple) melodies. There is also a big IDM and Glitch influence, giving the whole trip a more upbeat feeling this time. In fact the album was certainly made to be listened as a one great composition or journey since the tracks work better as steps than as individual entities.

But please don’t think there are no highlights! The Krusseldorf track (Boxing) gets me amazed with his sonic wizardry every time I listen to it, the Aligning Minds one (Tee-child) is a hell of a trip filled with tasty sounds, Eitan Reiten managed to transform Shulman’s “One Step Closer” with weird hypnotic alien sounds and finishing everything with great style comes Minilogue with gorgeous and deeeeeeeep tech-lowfi monster (“When The Roof Is Low Open Your Heart And The Sky Will Follow”). You can easily buy the album just for the above tracks… but you still get famous names that never disappoint like Vataff Project, Robert Rich (!!!), Omnimotion, I Awake and Hibernation. Together with less famous but not less exciting ones (who the hell is Alexander Daf and why I never heard him before?!) you get what probably will be the best 2010 ambient/chill compilation.

My only complaint is about the transition between the tracks. Sometimes they are quite abrupt and not DJ friendly. But this is only a small point and should not distract you from what is, in my opinion, the best compilation released by Aleph Zero so far!

Listen to samples and buy it here. Highly recommended!!!

Released some months ago by the great Israeli record label Aleph Zero, the long awaited Eitan Reiter album is a perfect companion for the European summer (or to warm us here on the Brazilian winter). Who?! Maybe you know him by his more famous project, the awesome trance act Loud.

I admit that I was expecting something more experimental based on the “Coffee” track (released on the “Natural Born Chillers 2″ and reappearing here), which I love, but instead we got half of smooth loungy tracks and half of morning warm ambient journeys. The more conventional loungy jazzy ones are cool but doesn’t really tell me much… Maybe on a summer festival siting on the grass?

With the other half we get something different. Deeper, very warm and emotional morning ambient gems. Most of the times a very happy vibe is obtained, reminding me of some crazy caribbean atmospheres (if this make sense). In my opinion is worth getting the album for this tracks! Here is one of my favorites: Smile.

It’s clear that Aleph Zero is trying to release push the envelope of the psychedelic ambient scene on every release. Even if their latest releases are not your style there is no doubt that it’s extremely well done and different. Worth a listen for sure!