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The Martian Chronicles

by Seren Ffordd and Oöphoi

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    The Martian Chronicles is a 7 track album with an extra longform version of the entire album as well as extra artwork.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £8 GBP  or more

     

1.
2.
Dead Cities 15:03
3.
Blue Fire 13:19
4.
5.
Canals 08:10
6.
7.
Unremembered 09:55
8.

about

The Martian Chronicles was released after Oophoi and I had passed music back and forth for over three years while working on the project.
The music that forms the base of the track ‘Unremembered’ was the first piece sent by myself to Oophoi to start the album (which also developed independently into the album MooN by Seren Ffordd).
After a period of working together Oophoi suggested we honour Ray Bradbury and his book ‘The Martian Chronicles’. I had the great pleasure of re-reading the book after many years - finding I still remembered the characters and the strange otherworldly nature of the landscapes beings and complicated timelines.
The track ‘End of a Changeling’ includes every piece of music created by Oophoi for the album – those heard in earlier tracks and those yet to come. The music was mixed to a crescendo at the end, recreating a specific part of the book in sonic form. The tracks also play with the mixed timelines of the novel – each one connected to a chapter, but in reverse order to the book.
Sadly Ray Bradbury passed away shortly after the album was released and will be sorely missed.

I hope you enjoy the music.

Review © Bert Strolenberg:
"The Martian Chronicles" is a 74-minute longform album inspired by Ray Bradbury's short science fiction story by the same name. It is the first collaborative album between Oöphoi (aka Italian drone expert Gianluigi Gasparetti) and Welsh soundscape composer Seren Ffordd (aka Andy Benford).
What we got here is a deep and immersive work of cinematic ambient that took about three years in the making. The seven tracks feature vast, dark and slow morphing drone textures along field recordings and percussion, making up an intense trip into a mysterious and alienating world with psychedelic edges.
"The Martian Chronicles" is a spacious recording meant for deeper and focussed listening, that seems to submerge the listener even more when heard with a good pair of headphones.
If you’re into dense ambient art works with both subtle changes along fine environmental sounds, this quality album is for you.

Review in Textura:
Speaking of extraterrestrial, The Martian Chronicles, the first collaboration between long-time Hypnos contributors Seren Ffordd & Oophoi, takes its name from a story collection by Ray Bradbury (by the way, Seren Ffordd, the alias adopted by Andy Benford is Welsh for Star Road, Way of Stars, or Milky Way, while Italian ambient-drone composer Gianluigi Gasparetti is the man behind Oophoi).
The seventy-four-minute set elaborates on its sci-fi connection in seven ethereal moodscapes the duo recorded between 2006 and 2009 using synths, samples, percussion, and field recordings as the primary sources (the album was mixed at Benford's StarWeb studio, aptly enough).
The journey is mysterious, deep, and immersive, especially when the settings flow uninterruptedly from one to the next. The second track, “Dead Cities,” already finds us inhabiting deep space, as suggested by the lulling ebb and flow of the gaseous exhalations that dominate its early goings. A choir seems to faintly intone alongside the instrumental sounds (also during “Canals”), though that could simply be a hallucinatory response to the alien sounds in play. Cavernous rumblings convincingly conjure the vast emptiness of space before “Blue Fire” brings a rather more serene mood to the album.
An occasional real-world sound, such as the chirping birds and rain downpour in “Flamebirds Waiting for the Storm,” adds a more concrete dimension to the generally abstract character of the sound design. Regardless of mood, the tracks unfold slowly, a move that in turn heightens their immersive potential, and there's a grandiosity to the pair's material, not to mention drama and depth. Though it's very much in the deep ambient tradition, The Martian Chronicles is also a superb example of the genre and one aficionados would do well to investigate.

credits

released October 3, 2011

Music and sounds recorded by Seren Ffordd in the Starweb studio and Oophoi in the Kiva.
Final mix made by Seren Ffordd in the Starweb studio.
Cover art by Seren Ffordd.
Cover layout and final mastering by Mike Griffin of Hypnos.
Album released by Hypnos - www.hypnos.com

CD available via Hypnos.com or Serenffordd@hypnos.com

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about

Seren Ffordd UK

Seren Ffordd, (Star Road or Way of Stars), has been recording since 2004.
creating mainly soundscapes - which can be light / dark / noisy / strange by using acoustic sounds, effects & synths.
Everything is treated, carved and explored for unusual textures, dissonances, shades – allowing the evolving themes of each track or album to develop.
Occasionally 'music' has actually appeared as well.
... more

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