1. Brian Eno - David Byrne | Regiment
I was studying Art in 1992 and my tutor was playing all sorts of rare, bizzare but interesting Music, while we were in class. I remember listening to this by Eno & Byrne. It is great discovering possibilities. A jam feel, East & West, live recordings, electronics, everything in there. It hit me like Electricity. I think they were both at their peak of Exploration.
2. Brian Eno With Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno | Under Stars
When I first listened to Apollo I felt being surrounded by Music and Sound. So detached but so warm at same time. It was my introduction to Ambient Music.
3. Aphex Twin | Untitled (Track 19 on UK vinyl and cassette versions only of Selected Ambient Works Volume II, sometimes referred as Stone In Focus)
I think it was 1993 and I was studying Music Technology in the UK and discovered Richard D. James releases... Surfing On Sine Waves, On, Selected Ambient Works 85-92, but it was Stone In Focus on SAW2 that was one of the most captivating pieces of Music from Aphex, that did it for me. You felt Calmness, Unease, Fear of Emptiness and the Unknown, all at the same time. Those releases were coming one after the other, at a period that the scene was dominated with Sample-based Music, with his weird sounding productions, Programming, playing a lot with Field Recordings, and Voice Manipulation. It was great times being in the UK.
4. Autechre | Nine
It was the same time and Amber came out. Full of inventive use of Programming, but also melodic-score-like elements. It was Nine that stood out for those reasons for me.
5. Basic Channel | Quadrant Dub I
I think it was 1993-1994. I was still in the UK at a friend's house, and while playing records, he played Phylyps Trak (I think that was the one) by Basic Channel and then mixed it with another one by them, or an early Chain Reaction release by Porter Ricks, Nautical Zone I think, and all of a sudden I felt overwhelmed. It was like so refreshing. Music, stretching the perception and ideas that can be incorporated into Modern Electronic Music. Most of those compositions avoided using any of their periods trends, that's why they lasted, they aged gracefully, and inspire.
6. Philip Glass | Metamorphosis One
I actually see all the parts as a whole, but having to select one, from this album, it must be Part One. Great cyclic movement with subtle changes.That was the element that drew me to get to know his work. A lite motif developed in an album lenght. I remember, around the time I was making the Vibrant Forms 1&2 sessions in 1996-1997, I was listening to Philip Glass and Wim Mertens.
7. Philip Glass | Music With Changing Parts
Music With Changing Parts was a long piece, not for every moment, that made you forget after a while the particular instruments being played... Once sucked in, you are listening to the composition as to one rich sound, an evolving/moving motif.
8. Vim Mertens | The Aural Trick (The Belly Of An Architect Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I liked the movie, but the Music was great. The whole OST is great, but this piece felt like a force of Nature, full of Emotion, furious in a sequenced way, despite the fact that he used real instruments.
9. Arvo Pärt | Tabula Rasa: Silentium (Performed by Richard Studt & Tasmin Little with Bournemouth Sinfonietta)
One of the great composers of our time. Solitude, Tranquility, looking inwards but feeling in connection to everything at the same time.
10. Steve Reich | Music For 18 Musicians
It made me think about Coloration of Tones and Sound with not much going on. To hide things a bit, to have things revealed to an extend that may or may not be audible, and how this creates more of an adventurous listening experience. I like Music with repetitive structures, cycles, with subtle changes, I am still in that cloud, in a way. So listening to things that ignite and fuel ideas of how to shape up your environment is a special moment.
