Product Format: CDR
** Regular Stock Item **Price: £9.99 (exc)
£11.99 (inc)
Qty:
Award winning Australian composer / synthesist’s 1st international release featuring 8 Tracks over 69 Minutes of Melodic Space Ambient Electronic Music!
About this artist and his influences…
Jim Ottaway is already known at CDS Towers for his Melodic Instrumental Space Ambient series of CD-R releases: ‘Aurora’, ‘Orion’, ‘Centauri’ and ‘Liquid Moon’. Those, together with other themed releases: ‘Chill Factor’ and ‘Blitz’, plus his more recent factory pressed titles: ‘Power’ (originally a 2013 CD-R, but re-released in January 2015 on CD), 2015’s ‘Invisible Vortex’ and 2016’s ‘Southern Cross’, both of which are Digi-Pak productions, all stylishly presenting Jim's musical alter-ego as someone who injects 100% heart and soul into the music he makes and great attention to detail into how he presents it to his public.
While trying to create his own style of electronic music, Jim openly acknowledges the influence that artists such as: TANGERINE DREAM, Edgar Froese, ENIGMA, Vangelis, PINK FLOYD, Johannes Schmoelling, Christopher Franke, CODE INDIGO, Gary Wright, RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL and Aussie artists: Christopher Buckman, Tony O'Connor and Lisa Gerrard have had on his music over the years.
About this album…
‘Aurora’ is Jim Ottaway’s sixty-eight minute debut album from 2006, and it features tracks ranging from just under three to over fourteen minutes long! ‘Aurora’ followed on from a few local releases that were more “new age” oriented, although a tinge of space ambient music came through in various tracks on these earlier releases.
As you can tell by the titles of the tracks on ‘Aurora’ (i.e. ‘Aurora Borealis’ and ‘Ice Age’), Jim has used aspects of our environment influenced by space and time as motivational sources.
Musically, each track captures beautifully the essence of its title. For example when listening to tracks 3 and 8 (‘Aurora Borealis’ and ‘Aurora Australis’) you are transported to the northern and southern poles, experiencing the beauty and majesty of the ever-changing and swirling colours of the aurora in the evening skies.
The full CDS review for ‘Aurora’ has been edited and adapted from two early versions written by Andy Garibaldi at CDS in April 2006…
The debut album from this new Australian synthesist opens with ‘Snowfall {Prelude}’, a two and a half minute track that is absolutely spellbinding as layers of flowing, floating synths create a magical expanse, and immediately your attention is drawn to the music as it slowly fades and you wonder what's around the next corner?
String synths herald the warm sounding, analogue arrival of the nine-minute: 'Fortune', as warm sounding, stretched out melodies rise slowly in majestic fashion - all quite beautiful, cosmic and blissfully symphonic.
This is a space music track that is, once again, absolutely magical and infused with slowly flowing melodic content, being more Jon Serrie / Kevin Braheny-esque than the more amorphous compositions of perhaps someone like Steve Roach.
From here it's onto the near thirteen-minute: 'Aurora Borealis', where a new universe of space and cosmic synth layers are assembled. As the music builds and strengthens, so you find a deep river of cosmic bass synth undercurrents coming from below the main body of music, giving extra depth to the soaring magic of the richly textured cascading melodic synth layers that occupy the glorious full-sounding musical landscape being created on top. Slowly but surely, as a world of magical electronic music unfolds, an altogether darker mood becomes apparent, creating a more varied atmosphere. This is cosmic electronic music that really holds your attention as the layers change and develop!
The five-minute 'Light of Day' is a slow symphonic example of cosmic bliss, with string synths, delicate tinkling rippling sounds, deep bass undercurrents and a core of flowing space synths that drift in layers, taking you off to another plane, as majestic sounding lead keyboards glow slowly then open out into another wide-eyed universe of sonic delight.
'Desert Shadows' is a nine-minute composition that could quite easily have fitted in with anything on the legendary ‘Western Spaces album that Steve Roach, Richard Burmer & Kevin Braheny recorded together for the IC Label way back. Its deep cosmic undercurrents and slowly evolving melodic soundscapes drift and flow effortlessly, but never stay in one place for long, always changing shape as the consistency of the deeper flow is maintained.
Three further tracks, two of which are quite lengthy, continue the space music approach to the same level of success, whilst occupying slightly different elements of this expansive sea of cosmic synth music, all serving to make this a 100% melodic cosmic synth music album that you can travel into and become completely caught up in its spell and charm.
‘Aurora’ is an extremely gorgeous album that contains strong and purposeful cosmic music that is superbly played, produced and arranged, making it one of the finest examples of warm, flowing, analogue-based cosmic synthesizer music to emerge in 2006.
Jim has dedicated ‘Aurora’ to his family and friends who have supported him through his journey.
Audio Samples from this and other Jim Ottaway albums can be found here by copying the following url into your browser: http://www.cd-services.com/downloads.aspx - Or you can access these files directly from a link placed on the bottom of the connected Jim Ottaway “Profile” page above.
Other JIM OTTAWAY albums available from stock at CDS Towers…
BEYOND THE PURPLE SUN (2019 Album / Gatefold Card Cover) CCCD - Stock # 2138875
BLITZ (2012 Album) CDR - Stock # 1606592
CENTAURI (2009 Album) CDR - Stock # 1606590
CHILL FACTOR (2011 Album) CDR - Stock # 1606593
DEEP SPACE BLUE (2017 Album / Digi-Pak) CD - Stock # 2002108
INVISIBLE VORTEX (2015 Album / Digi-Pak) CD - Stock # 1768151
LIQUID MOON (2011 Album) CDR - Stock # 1606594
ORION (2008 Album) CDR - Stock # 1606591
POWER (2013 Album) CD - Stock # 1650920
SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN (2022 Album / Gatefold Card Cover) CCCD - Stock # 2205967
SOUTHERN CROSS [2016 Album / Digi-Pak) CD - Stock # 1855352
THRESHOLD OF THE UNIVERSE (2021 Album / Gatefold Card Cover) CCCD - Stock # 2205580
TIMELESS E-MOTION (2017 Album / Digi-Pak) CD - Stock # 1914401
WHEN ETERNITY TOUCHES TIME (2020 Album / Gatefold Card Cover) CCCD - Stock # 2204857
YESTERDAY PASSING (2018 Album / Gatefold Card Cover) CCCD - Stock # 2070045
You can visit Jim's website at www.jimottaway.com
JIM OTTAWAY: AURORA Track List:
01. Snowfall {Prelude} (2:38)
02. Fortune (9:32)
03. Aurora Borealis (12:53)
04. Light Of Day (5:08)
05. Desert Shadows (8:46)
06. Snowfall (4:27)
07. Ice Age (10:47)
08. Aurora Australis (14:30)
TPT - 68:52