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Y2Kaos - Ambient Temple of Imagination
With tracks like "Light In Extension", "Starflesh of Nuit", "Daath", and "The Age of Maat",
it's obvious Richard Sun of ATOI got much inspiration from Crowley, Regardie, and other godfathers
of modern esoterica (as well as a few well-placed doses and perhaps some secret transmissions
from the Dog Star, Sirius). But what would you expect from the son of an avowed Satanist who ran
a Beatnik "speakeasy" in Chicago (The Witch's Haven) during the Sixties? This latest
release from ATOI is like audio meta-programming for psychedelic illuminoids: it's trippy,
well-produced, and worthy of much meditation. Although some might dub this "Rave" music, to me
it's not really Dance Music; it's music for eating peyote and sitting back to watch the
thoughtforms dance before your eyes. Images come to mind of the Eleusian Mysteries, the Rites
of Mithrais, and other frenzied Pagan rituals which are meant to bring participants into a
heightened state of awareness. Richard has stated previously that he believes the power of music
is in its capacity to control minds, and he has crafted these sounds to have a calculated effect
upon certain regions of the brain. Let's hope his sequencers are Y2K-compliant. (review by Tracy Twyman for Seconds Magazine #50)
Space rock and trancy techno seem to exist on parallel lines. Y2Kaos by dance collective Ambient Temple of Imagination (Mystery School 2CD, £17.99) gets more hybrid than most. The Bay Area troupe preaches holistic medicine and the healing power of technology and makes an awesome tower of noise with some of that old school exuberance that The Orb and KLF possessed before dance went all 1975 on us. (review by Rob Chapman for MOJO - The Music Magazine, February 2000)
Ambient Temple of Imagination Y2KAOS (Mystery School Vols. 1-5) (ATOI:MS)--Deep, cerebral, powerful, evil, majikal, highly technical, trancelike electronic magnificence. Can you handle the real thing? (review by Steven Blush for The Paper, October 1999)
AMBIENT TEMPLE OF IMAGINATION: Y2KAOS
Prepare For The Ride Of Your Life, but take care, because this is an intense listening experience - in fact, nearly two and a half hours of the most expansive music you'll hear but delivered in a manner that is so much more than space-music, so much more musical than space-rock and never have elements of the two been combined like this before. It's an instrumental voyage into an infinitely long galaxy of mind-boggling proportions. From the opening salvo of drums, electronic percussion, bass drones, echoed samples, scorching guitars (that Froese/Gottsching/Brock could only dream like sounding), massive electronic backdrops and layers of space effects and distant feedback, you are not, as on most such albums, at the start of the trip, but flung into the heart of the outer reaches of a musical universe that really is like nothing else you've ever heard. On disc one, for a continuous 70+ minutes without any breaks, all of thse elements, in ever different, ever changing, dense, cosmic, deep, emotional and totally 'out there' musical settings, often with some of the strongest drum loops and rhythms present on such an overtly space-music album, have you completely hooked. You marvel at the way the electronics and samples seem to be all around the central structure and occasionally rhythmic framework, and are in awe of the way the magnificently produced and arranged music fills the room with and almost organic sound presence, so brilliant it lights the night sky like a blazing supernova. Yet it's a mix of darkness and light where the music posses no fundamental melodic or rhythmic structure and yet is totally cohesive as it takes over your consciousness. The drums die away on occasions to leave brief passages of calm. Using samples as integral parts of the overall sound, the constituent elements of percussion, electronics and samples producea type of music that is wholly creative and unique...and that's just the first CD. There's a further 70+ minutes of continuous music, of even greater space-music proportions this time, on disc two, where percussion and rhythm take a lesser roleand an infinite variety of soundpools, layers, samples and textures produce more galaxian soundscapes. Make no mistake - this is an intense musical trip - if you want neat little melodies and sweet space music at one end of dark gothic stuff that does little but drift at the other end, then this is not for you. But if you want what amounts to REAL space music that totally ditches the space/rock/ambient rulebook, takes over every fibre of your feelings, you should turn out the lights, turn up the volume and just experience the effect, because this is so much more than 'just music' - it's one of the biggest 'highs' you can get that's legal, and one of the top music CD's of any style that I've heard in the last 7 years. It wil split the audience up into thsoe that can't get enough of it and those that can't get near it (so take total advantage of the approval system if you're unsure and want to play it safe), but you just have to hear it as it may well change your whole listening perspective - you simply cannot ignore it - perfection on a silver plate. (review by Andy G. for CD Services)
5 ATOI albums (the Mystery Schools) are compiled onto the double-disk 'Y2Kaos' - and there seems to have been some reworking in the process. I have the second in the series (bought at Amoeba during my one trip to SF, during which I met CUE {the personal link}) and the tracks are different in length and have been remixed. ATOI are Richard Sun and Seofon, but are joined by a multitude (including Thermal and Freezer) for their live excursions. Disk A 'Atoi' is from the two studio albums 'Mystery School' and 'Sonic Acupuncture', and starts as it means to continue with 'Fire' a big, beaty complex track, gradually coalescing from simple and quiet elements to a fast pace with guitars and drones over the pulsing beat - not doofy enough for 'trance' but powered, with sampled voices over (usually, if you listen, relevant to the track title, and always interesting). The beat drives on in 'Lust' which adds some dubby echoes and nice noises, and into 'Earthquake' with electro-horn opening, drones and a complex layering of speakers, phone-noises and the other musical elements, slightly slower than 'Lust'. In fact, the album has been edited so that the tracks fuse into each other - the rhythms and sounds cross over between tracks. And I wouldn't like to imply that the pieces are monolithic - they shift in density through their passage. The deceleration continues with the next two tracks 'Light in extension' which is more brooding, a simple beat with layered ambience (particularly guitar) and 'Starflesh of nuit' where an organ provides the foreground. Appropriately titled, spooky synths open 'Exorcism' as it follows an eponymous ritual building slowly, driven by a big drum, with the growls of satanic beasts complaining about their torture. Strangely spelt, 'Daath' brings a short relief of drifting, gentle ambience with voices over, before 'Hipgnosis' returns to the complex beated style, with more dub. A shift again with 'Mantram' which is constructed primarily out of samples of chanting monks, choirs and subtle synth to create a religious mood, a very nice piece. 'Arma-get-on' destroys the world in another complex arrangement for beats, instruments and the ongoing sample selection. The last three tracks create a gentle coda, linking some of the quieter themes: 'Sonic acupuncture' is a slow, dreamy tonal ambience which continues into 'Devotion' where an organ and some chanting are added before seguing back to the tonal drift of 'The age of maat', completing a very interesting journey through this complex sonic soundworld all their own. On the second album 'Atoi Live', the ten tracks run seamlessly into each other to form, in the words of The Orb 'A huge ever growing pulsating brainÉ'. Spacey dub ambient, big on beats, shifting and flowing endlessly, didgeridoo amongst the other instruments, such as guitar, all forms of synths and drums, plus samples and voices and effects give the appearance of a single exciting enveloping concert. Moods slide and mutate, rhythms come and go, but behind it all is an enjoyment in the moment and the music. It is the studio side writ large, and if you like your ambient generous this is it - not relax and layback, but move to an ambience closer to dance, or rock to the rhythm. Great fun: immerse yourself in a steamy 'virtual' San Francisco night, as the very together musical collective which is ATOI comes to live. (review by Jeremy Keens for Ampersand Etcetera - Volume 2 Number 2)
ATOI: Y2KAOS (ATOI:MS - 1999)
The collective minds and often-improvisational talents of Richard Sun, Seofon and Thermal converge to become the everchanging entity of music and thought known as the Ambient Temple of Imagination. A retrospective of their work, Y2KAOS shows the artists at their most collaborative, mixed as a continually flowing stream of altered musical consciousness. These three main players are this month's featured interview which parts the curtains, revealing what's behind the music.
The 13 tracks (in 73:58) of disc one (culled from Mystery School and Sonic Acupuncture) ring in on the clanging bells and synth arpeggios of Fire. Rapidly sybilant syncopations and thrumming drones travel past like the outer edges of a great tornado; from within, wailing guitar and frantic radio voices emerge to be swept into the powerful, coiling vortex. Amid swirling vapours stirred by a continually throbbing rhythm section, one hears the crooning voices and echoing drums of Lust (and crowd murmurs as well).
Quite an assortment of thoughtfully-placed samples are spewed forth from the core of sonic energy which characterizes these pieces. Big and booming, Earthquake uses bits of socio-political speech, newscasts, explosions and elephants. Religious broadcasts and swooshing waves are woven into Light in Extension, a lower key, yet still rhythmic offering. The soothing strings and quiet passages of Starflesh of Nuit merge with anti-war samples. The calm intro of Exorcism is soon overtaken by thunderous beats. A demonic voice and assorted chaotic chatter are dashed on the jagged surface of insistent percussion and convoluted waveforms.
Less beaty and more droney, Mantram, includes a plethora of chanting voices from smooth Gregorian to boys' choir to more "primitive" tribal incantations. A virtual whirlwind of political, social and religious doctrine, Arma-Get-On is a tower of mediaspeak babble which includes multitudinous spoken samples (and even the old Viking "yo-heave-ho" song) backed by steadily pattering beats and surging drones; the track ends, of course, in a cataclysmic explosion, then segues into the percussion free floatation zone of Sonic Acupuncture, where dense, dreamy flows softly swirl.
Disc Two (with 10 tracks from Eleusina, Gaia and Planetary House Nation) is also 73:58 in length. Obsession opens the disc with churning hyperrhythms threaded through with didgeridoo passages and synthstrands, all of which seem to sweep into a crowded room filled with muffled voices, becoming the next track... More or less beatless, save for a hushed, rhythmic loop and sporadic cymbal splashes at its end, Telesterion S.F. is awash in sparkling sonic froth and its skies are crisscrossed with electronic rays. If the bubbling electrons and trance-inducing drum loops of Dionysus Aphrodite Apollo are an attempt to awaken the ancient gods, the seemingly endless cycles have an opposite effect on me...
The hovering drones and muted female intonations and wails which float through The Invocation, another basically percussionless track, are hypnotic in a more personally appealing fashion though. The following pieces (Bloodmoonmothergoddess (3:34) and Nature of Desire) continue in this more subdued fashion as does the next; electronic winds blow into Xibalba Be (Maha Kali Ma) a slow cyclonic force which emits the occasional sample from American culture from its shapeless haze.
The rhythm returns in tribalistically pounding glory with Planetary House Nation, laced with didge-tones and murky atmospheres. Spacier sounds abound when Ancestors (10:41) fills the air with percolating soundwaves and softer rhythmic patterns.
Embracing music, man, nature and electronic pyschedelia, Y2KAOS encompasses a lot of sonic and social territories; its tracks, like the millennial timeflow, segue from one sonic situation (and its companion ideas) to the next. Thought-provoking, energetic music to stimulate the mind and body receives an AmbiEntrance 8.5. (review by David Opdyke for Ambientrance)
ATOI - Y2KAOS (2CD by ATOI:MS)
ATOI also delivered a new product, and go wild with a two CD set. A good 140 minutes of spacey sounds, well crafted rhythms and mucho sampled voices and appregiated rhythms. The tempo is quite high and the density of the atmosphere is filled. This doesn't make it very 'ambient', but more 'techno for weirdos' (or 'by weirdos' - who knows). Nice by (sic) a bit tiring to listen to the entire 145 minutes in one run... (review by Frans de Waard for Vital Weekly, Week 50 Number 204)
ATOI Mystery School- Y2KAOS
http://www.a-toi.com
Listening to this for the past week or so made me think that it would have
been an experience of sorts to go to a rave or a chill out room, something
which admittedly I have never done. I've heard talk of Ambient Temple Of
Imagination through various lists, but to be honest till this cd arrived
would not have gone out looking for any of their material. Which is a bit
sad as this particular release, if it is indicative of what they do, not
only rocks but is good fun at the same time. There is a positive energy
about this recording that I like; it's uplifting to listen to with all of
it's hidden meanings and symbolism. It appears to be some sort of
retrospective of what ATOI (primarily Richard Sun and Seofon plus various
members who are free to come and go by the sound of things ) have been
doing between 1992-1997. A continuous pulsating rhythmic patterns
throughout, didgeridoos (courtesy of Stephen Kent?), screaming guitars,
tons of electronics, effects, dissonant voices speaking out at times
philosophical messages at you through the ether waves...I'm not au fait
with what some may term Intelligent Dance Music, but I guess this may fit
nicely into that genre. It's a double cd, with the second cd being live
material. According to Seofon this second disc represents what ATOI and
Thermal/Freezer sounded like in a live context between 1995-1997. There's
lots of symbolism scattered throughout, kabbala, Sai Baba, Dali, Kali with
her necklace of skulls standing over the body of Shiva etc. ATOI question
where today's madness comes from, by way of conspiracy theory. It's
upbeat, up-tempo and most importantly good fun. Soft core techno wizz
bangery meets tribal drumming. ATOI say "Awaken your mind through music."
It's about being in the now and here, and being consciously aware amongst
other things. There's more than enough info over at their extensive web
site, so check it out for yourself. (review by Hans Stoeve for Nadabrahma)
The double CD Y2Kaos ... is curiosly unengaging. For 2 x 73 minutes, the various artists go through all the usual trance motions, beats chugging along, "mystical" voices and messages surfacing and then receding. Some of this music was recorded live in San Franciscan chill rooms, and perhaps that is the proper milieu in which to fully appreciate it. (review by Stephen Fruitman for ambient@hyperreal mailing list)
This 2xcd set from Seofon and Thermal has been jammed in my player for a few days now and I have to say that it really really works for me. In stuggling for some way to describe it, the only thing that comes to mind is KLF's ambient projects (Chill Out/Rights of Mu). It doesn't have the same kind of spacious qualities to it (this is busier and knitted a bit more tightly with the odd rhythmic pattern) - which is one of the more endearing qualities of the KLF fodder - but it's got that floaty thing happening with all kinds of odd echoey things and narrations/themes/riffs and hodgepodge drifting in and out and fx-ed in a similar fashion. It works itself into cohesion simply through the feel of the flux, which is one of the things I like about the aforementioned KLF stuff. I'm not familiar with their (Seofon-Thermal) other projects, but this one is fun. Great soundtrack for puttering on the pc. More properly ambient than anything else, but variety never hurt anyone. (review by Jeff Klein for ambient@hyperreal mailing list)