Ambient Temple of Imagination -- Planetary House Nation reviews

Ambient Temple of Imagination * Planetary House Nation * Mindspore 1997

Recorded live at The Gathering's five year anniversary celebration, this ATOI aural odyssey is nothing short of a mainline to the collective tribal soul. Unrehearsed, this spontaneous electronic mass communion begins with a benediction of organic ambience, fades seamlessly into indefinable yet profoundly familiar bassline resonances, culminates in orgiastic tribal percussion, and glides gently back to relative silence. Looking up at a somehow significant 72:23 on my CD player, still buzzing from the trip, I would only wonder what ancient energies I had just conjured up by pressing PLAY. This Mystery School collaboration (Richard Sun, Seofon, E.A.R., Thermal, Stephen Kent, Dionysus Dreams, IAO Core, Nevele) is old, OLD school trance in the traditions of the masters whose soul fire has made an epic journey from humankind's first trance dance to the temples of our Planetary House Nation, released upon its devotees. For those of us who weren't fortunate enough to experience this ATOI divination at its source, we can only imagine sharing this rite of chaotic beauty with the "three thousand seething fleshbodies" that gathered in a Bay Area warehouse on Winter Solstice 1996. Luckily the fidelity of this recording has captured the essence of the ceremony like a govi spirit jar, needing only new bodies to work its divine possession. Listen closely. Frozen here in digital stasis are the origins of trance, the ambient codes of life, shards of genetic memory, and the undeniable presence of Spiritus Mundi, ready and waiting to be decoded. Turn out the lights, light some fine incense, a candle, clear a space on your own temple of imagination, take your sacrament of choice, hit PLAY, and return to the source. (5.25/6 Loti -- review by Michael Pisano for Lotus Magazine #12)

Ambient Temple of Imagination - Planetary Groove Nation (Mindspore Records)

This orgiastic, trance-ambient orgy recorded live at the Bay Area's first Gathering back in 1992 actually pre-dates the current popularity for English-import bands like Prodigy. Ambient Temple of Imagination are underground legends, an American rave entity that not only plays live, but is successful at capturing on record all the intensity, sweat, and divine catharsis of its show. Hypnotic drones, cascading wave shimmers and snippets of prose ("She's giving birth...to a new baby earth...she is...the mother of us all.") woven deep into the highly hypnotic mix make this truly tasty listening when you want to gain energy. Unlike the often overpowering, downright ugly sounds of techno music, The Gathering has a softer, more richly embellished character that includes third world rhythms, comfortably familiar galactic textures, and many human elements to help ground the listener while the consciousness alters in a safe, warm cocoon of sound. (review by PJ Birosik for Lightworks)

Ambient Temple of Imagination: Planetary House Nation (Mindspore Records - 1997)

Planetary House Nation is a gathering (literally!) of various ambient-minded musicians. Its destination is perhaps best expressed in the liner notes... "the realm of unrehearsed, abstract, spontaneous experimentation, electronic mass communion, explorations of uncharted terrtitory..."

Call it Ambient Improv. It's an immersive, psychedelic (again, literally, it seems) freeform exploration for the '90s and on. Richard Sun, with musicians Seofon, E.A.R., Thermal, Stephen Kent and others, have created a 72-minute-plus cosmic celebration, the individual tracks fused together into one protoplasmic whole.

Distant voices, bells, windy synths and numerous other sounds slowly begin to coalesce into a sonic cloud, then a flanged, robotic voice monotonously speaks into the vortex. In Finite Self begins thusly, eventually picking up a fairly lively tribal beat and a buzzing, barking didge. For over 15-1/2 minutes it shifts and morphs hypnotically. The hallucinogenic murk flows directly into the next track, That Galaxy Called Humanity, in which the beat changes somewhat, while the background elements continue their primordial oozing. Fragmented robot vocals slip almost imperceptibly by, as do other sporadic electronics; all the while, the drums beat on.

Another segue, and we're into Beltane 93 which is marked by a quieter (though still active) atmosphere, and an absence of percussion. At 5 minutes, it's also the shortest "track"; in fact, it's the only one under 10 minutes. Beats reappear, signaling the convergence with the next phase, Ancestors and its persistently chugging rhythm. Fragmented crys shift through the choppy soundwaves, until everything hushes, though there's still plenty of movement in the mist.

Yet another subtle shift; a quieting new presence looms; it is Plan E.T. Airy House Nation with its own phantom voices, percussive patterns, electric shimmerings and wild cries into the night, plus many now-familiar effects. The track all but dissipates, leaving a hazy void, through which we enter the into final phase... Black/White-Rainbow/Clear is a dense wash of synth, samples and eventual rhythmic patterns. Things build, the beat becomes more poundingly insistent, the background electronics ripple wildly, sonic walls begin to melt, everything slows and quietens, oozing now, evaporating and fading away.

Whether your mind is altered by the subliminally encoded psychoactive stimulants, (or you're compelled to provide your own), Planetary House Nation is definitely a One Thumb Up sonic transcendance. Tune in, turn on... "and please, remember to Freak with dignity". (review by David Opdyke for the Ambientrance)

AMBIENT TEMPLE OF IMAGINATION: Planetary House Nation

Seventy-three minutes of real space music, but it is unusual in the sense that a lot of the music has a rhythmic backdrop, yet this is nothing short of sensational, with lengthy tracks, some of which flow into each other, creating the impression of one almighty long track! The album starts with a universe of flowing space synth layers and deep running cosmic bass synth undercurrents, creating a real atmosphere that sounds like a synth version of the cosmic bliss from early '70s Hawkwind albums. Shortly, a drum rhythm begins and the spacecraft takes off as synths and percussion combine with distant sampled backdrops, on a really tasty trip with a synthesized sound that is solid, a rhythm that's infectious and so much going on in the mix, yet it is most definitely space music! Track 2 carries on this atmosphere with even more space synth layers, ambient textures, insistent drum backdrops and glissando guitar textures on a piece that is just magical to behold as the ride through space continues. Throughout the rest of the voyage you will witness a huge range of sonic textures and soundscapes as synths, guitars, percussion and electronics all merge, evolve, and change in an ever encroaching set of layers that travel effortlessly through galaxies of sound you can only dream about. Solid, dynamic, and like nothing else around today. (review by Andy G. for CD Services)

I received a pack of no less than four copies of Ambient Temple Of Imagination's Planetary House Nation (1997 MSP-0003-24). The title, graphics and profligacy were suggestive of some religious cult, but the music is actually quite good. Ambient-industrial with a strong ritual quality, it is nightmarish in parts but never loses its musical basis. The album is released on Mindspore Records. (review by Rik for FluxEuropa)

Ambient Temple of Imagination - Planetary House Nation (Mindspore Records)

PLANETARY HOUSE NATION by Ambient Temple of Imagination

This album is a thing of subtle beauty. ATOI presents six expansive tracks which use everything from live tribal drums to groovy electronic rhythms -- often simultaneously -- as they weld together their ethereal atmosphere. The result is exceptionally listenable music, low-key enough to create a background without demanding your attention, but infectious enough to get your head bobbing before you realize why. Whether or not ATOI achieves "a primal-therapy-mind-meld," as the liner notes suggest, is questionable. That they achieve a smoothly textured album that deserves to be heard is certain. (review by Jake Knapp for Napra)

Ambient Temple of Imagination Mindspore Records (1996)

Ambient Temple of Imagination is a terrific title. With this album, the packaging and the verbal element is as important as the sound. Ambient Temple comes out of the "rave" scene of the early to mid '90s, which is the inheritor of the psychedelic culture of the '60s. The sounds on the album were edited from live performances at a 1996 Winter Solstice "rave" gathering in (where else?) San Francisco. The cover and the interior graphics are suitably enhanced with the now-obligatory computer-generated images, bright rainbow colors, and even a Kabbalistic Tree of Life diagram. The delirious quality of the presentation is evident in the liner notes: "It's 3 AM and temple services are beginning. A mass of 3000-seething Fleshbodies have been screaming sweating and savoring the moments shared in the rarity of an actual warehouse event that is legally happening in the bay areaÉ.translated to intergalactic UNIVERSAL HEARTBEAT, a KAOS cosmos trancing hardcore every Saturday night, people dancing until they DROP...". So with that introduction, what's the music like? Well, it isn't "music" if melody and structure define music for you. It's more like techno-shamanic drumming, produced with the express intent of inducing visionary trance and movement. The sounds range from vast spacy echoes, with random cries or noises added by the audience, to electronic percussion rhythms that sometimes chug along like a freight train and sometimes sound more tribal. The familiar sounds of didgeridoo and primal drumming carry the listener on through the extended sonic space (the album is 72 minutes long), without too many outstanding sound-landmarks. The best section is probably cut 6, where multiple rhythms play against each other with somewhat more complexity than the previous sections. I've never been to a "rave", and I probably wouldn't survive it if I did. But Ambient Temple, even when played in the sedate atmosphere of my home, brings me just a taste of that tranceworld enjoyed by the ravers, and despite my sober nature I am tempted to dance to the electric drums. (review by Hannah Shapero for Wind & Wire, Jan/Feb 1998)

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