Mathias Grassow & Thomas Weiss 'Conscience' CD *REDUCED PRICE!*

*REDUCED PRICE!*

**REVIEW FOR AMBIENT VISIONS by Jim Brenholts** While Mathias Grassow has been creating ambient music since about five years before he was born, Thomas Weiss is a newcomer to the ambient community. Conscience, their first collaboration, is about as close to perfect ambient minimalism as it gets. Mathias has been the ultimate drone master for years and he continues to perfect his craft. This disc starts with a low drone that envelops listeners with its overtone qualities and subtle pitch changes. Mathias and Thomas build layers of atmospheres upon and from this drone. The atmospheres are gentle, cerebral and serene and they control the pace - slow, so slow as to approach standing still. That is the unique characteristic of this set. The music evolves slowly and deliberately. It seems to hang forever in listeners neuropathways as it triggers serotonin and neuroprenephrin activity. On the surface, the overtones have no substance or purpose. As they enter the biosonic feedback device (read: brain), they define themselves anew and allow listeners to float at will. For such a low-key soundscape, this CD evokes and promotes lots of activity -all of intangible and unquantifiable. While it might be impossible to dance to this music, it is just as impossible to prevent one's insides from dancing to it. The music infects the mind, the heart, the spirit and the soul with its positive energy. With this release, Thomas leaps to the forefront of the ambient community. Association with a master qualifies as a major endorsement. Mathias, with more than 100 releases in his discography, qualifies as a master. This CD is as good an introduction as any for his music. It comes with the highest recommendation. **REVIEW FROM VITAL WEEKLY No. 553** Although I'm not familiar with the entire body of work put out by Matthias Grassow, I must say what I heard was not bad at all. Ambient with the big A, but always with a slight touch of experimentalism, keeping it away from the dreaded new age posse. Here he teams up with one Thomas Weiss. The four piece on this CD sound exactly I would expect this to sound (which in itself is a pity since a surprise is always nice). Deep washes of synthesizers, with sparse, slow melodies and in the ornament side some far away, alienated sounds. Ambient with the A, as I said. It's not an album where big or new things happen, but Grassow and Weiss walk a well-known path: through a misty forest on an early sunday morning, with a touch of sunlight. One where even the firmest non-believer could think God exists. The cover tells us that the music doesn't want to entertain us, but 'give you a view inside your 'self''. Perhaps I am just too much a non-believer and merely want to enjoy the music and the spiritual side is a bit beyond me. (FdW)