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"PiNG" is only $15.00CAN plus taxes and mailing costs!

Sylken "PiNG"
A live disc from Toronto's improv ensemble.

"PiNG" is a set of live e-music from Sylken ensemble Eric Hopper, Wally Jericho and Steven Sauve. They recorded it at Toronto's AMBiENT PiNG, Canada's premiere venue for live electronica. This CD is loaded with great experimental atmospheres and deep e-music. Dark textures create auras of mass confusion. Of course, these guys are not trying to relax their listeners. This music is perfect for 'hard' listening. Deep listeners will hear the clues.

Jim Brenholts - the ambient navigator.

It sounds like the desires and dreams of a Film Noir-ish Los Angeles on rainy night in the Orion Nebula....a really cool blend of light and dark

Sara Ayers

Following up on last year's brilliant "Illusions of Light", Sylken releases "PiNG", a stunning live presentation of the ever evolving musical collective taken from a pair of performances recorded at The Ambient Ping.

Opening with "Here, then Gone", Sylken creates a deep and foreboding environment given a small hint of light by a lonely trumpet played masterfully by Wally Jericho, a frequent contributor to the project. Quiet synth lines pass by in the darkness, like comets travelling through space, burning brightly for only an instant, a faded memory the next. I'm not too sure who plays what on each track, but I'll comment here that both Eric Hopper and Steven Sauve of Sylken have a masterful approach to creating beautiful and emotional music through their keyboards, coaxing notes and tones that others would be unable to create. Hearing the sonic bliss they're responsible for I oftentimes think of the two of them as magicians more than musicians.

"The Sonorous Apparition" follows in the same dark vein, sound bended and folded in ways that shouldn't be possible, and yet becomes all the more beautiful for it. Random notes, a little guitar perhaps? It's all good...

"NGC 720" closes the disc, conjuring images of distant stars and nebulae swirling in the depths of space, a ballet of astronomy. Notes ebb and flow, grow and swell, rise and fall in a rapturous swirl, sweetly caressing the listener. Sensual.

Three pieces of long form ambience, all with their own unique charms. "PiNG" by Sylken fully captures the magic of performance and the beauty of space. Highly recommended.

rik - ping things