Today we continue with more electronica, but this time of a more ambient kind. Dr. Sounds is the artist, he has released a number of albums and you can listen to and download some of them on his Jamendo page. The latest album, an extended version of “Aquasphere”, is a real mastodon with 31 tracks and over 6 hours of music.

It’s minimalistic and ambient, but with different characteristics between the albums. From “Aeroball III”, which explores melodies and sounds and feels more experimental, to “Aquasphere” which is truly ambient in it’s nature with beautiful and peaceful soundscapes.

It’s also interesting when Dr. Sounds tells us about the healing power of this type of music. And then in the context of helping children with concentration difficulties, where there have been studies which indicates that continuos sounds of low volume can help children with ADHD to focus. Since he’s been one of those children himself he writes about this on his site, how the music has helped him to concentrate better.

Here you can listen to a couple of tracks, “Aquamon” from “Aeroball III” and “Fundamentals of Sexuality” from “Aquasphere”:

Aquamon
Fundamentals of Sexuality

Today will be electronica day here on Meadowmusic, together with Anto. It’s about dance and like he describes it:

“Crazy electro music combined with nostalgic sounds. Arcadegame melodies or 80’s synth-pop sounds.. It’s like travelling back in time but also into the future at the same time so the music touches you in many different ways”.

Anto produces his own instrumental dance tracks but also quite a few remixes, as he often is contacted by other artists about remixes. Especially I liked his remix of “Taken”, a song by the german indie-electronica band Digitalism, where the vocals mixed with Anto’s disco-heavy music makes a really cool combination.

You can listen more to Anto on Myspace and on Facebook.

Here is his own “Fantasy” and also the remix of Digitalism’s “Taken Away”:

Digitalism – Taken Away (Anto remix)
Fantasy

The trio Greta & The One Night Stands has an excellent ability to create those obvious pop melodies that seem to get stuck inside the head. They serve them in a nostalgic synth dress, often with vibes from the eighties. And skirt.

I have to mention the skirt. Greta & The One Night Stands have volunteered to act as changers, and intend to allocate the skirt as something that men could wear, which symbolise their challenge in what’s feminine and what’s masculine.

The band has recently released a new song, “Familiar to Me”, which you can listen to at their Facebook page or their Myspace page.

Here’s two tracks with Greta & The One Night Stands:

Hearts & Bones
I Could Never Learn

Already in autumn, when I wrote about the electronica/ambient-duo ad dios, I could present a track from their upcoming album “A Journey through Middle Earth”. Now the album is here, and the journey is complete.

That they would create an album set in Tolkien’s landscapes doesn’t come as a complete surprise; the inspiration from celtic myths and ancient landscapes is there both in the stories from Middle Earth and in the works from ad dios. I do find, though, a little shift in style in this album compared to the others; this is much more focused on melodies than the ambient style. Like if the melodies carries some part of the story and not only describe the places.

Many of us have a special relation to this world of fantasy, and other composers have before created music with this theme. Here you can listen to a couple of tracks from ad dios’ version of Middle Earth.

On ad dios’ site you can find out more and listen to the album.

Isengard
Anduin

A while ago I wrote about Natubella and her new album, “Little Devil”. The album is now released and the song TDG is available here for free download. Also check out the video from the release gig, where they also play TDG. They call it electRocknica….

TDG

You’ll find Natubella on her site.