hypnagogue.net/2011/04/27/dan-pound-medusazoa/

April 27, 2011
by Hypnagogue

Prolific ambient composer Dan Pound sets out to capture the grace of jellyfish in his latest release, Medusazoa. He hits the mark, but don’t expect this to be just a long stretch of burbling, fluid pads of balletic invertebrate motion. They’re here, and the first three minutes of the opener, “Liquid Body,” would have you think that’s the case, but then, quietly, Pound begins to fleck the surface with pinprick hits of percussion and we’re off into interesting territory. There’s a mix of textures at play on Medusazoa. Microbeats, backbeats, sequencer rhythms, guitar work and more find way into Pound’s pieces here, and everything glides into place without rippling the waters. There’s a feeling of balance to the flow; “Liquid Body,” with its microbeats, melts slowly into the classic ambient track, “Under Her Spell,” which then opens into the tick-tock’ing sequenced start of “Living Fossil”–but under the rhythm are slow-moving pads. So each new step comes off as a sensible move and nothing is jarring. It all works. The title track contains an interesting blend of sounds. A poky piano melody one-notes its way around synth structures for a few minutes, then takes a short break while Pound gets a little dark. Watery sounds gurgle underneath. A beat rises up and the piano returns, all the elements landing in a strange but intriguing meld that eventually fades into very quiet drones. Pound breaks out his Fender Strat in the 14-minute “Tentacles,” mixing processed chord cries (very Roach-like in their feel) with patient, straightforward playing. The backdrop, shadowy and a trifle tense, offers a counterpoint. “Bioluminescence” comes back to a basic-feeling waveform ambient motif, rising and falling pads set alongside angelic chords. The closer, “Currents,” has a watery shimmer accented with electronic bubbles, a warm flow that brings the listener back around to the start. Should go without saying that Medusazoa gets played on loop. It’s a great wind-down listen, offering more than just standard ambient constructs while still packing that spacious/spacey feel. Deep listens are amply rewarded, but Medusazoa is also one that should be allowed to fill the space. Another superb outing from Pound.

Morpheus Music review of Medusazoa.

Link to actual publication: www.electronicmusicmall.com/Html/reviews90.htm#medusazoa


March 2011
Smooth, oceanic ambient electronica.
Medusazoa is an album of warm, fluid, mostly beatless synth environments. Drifting pads and velvety drones waft and mass around emergent pulse formations and rhythmic digital fragments. Liquid clicks and flecks trickle against synthetic vibrations or burble alongside repeating motifs; lazy scale patterns meander upward, downward; peculiar disturbances rustle and murmur and there are occasional sussurant flushes of turbulence. A downtempo beat arises midway through the title track, lazy and uncluttered; beguiling watery purring sounds cycling around. Some tracks centre mostly on the ponderous heave of layered drones, the flutter and flicker of rhythmic ephemera deep within. Others have subtle melodic elements: hypnotically repeating motifs; sparse piano phrases, electric guitar touches; these buoyant centres of regularity suspended in sequential tides or wandering afloat through ambient densities.

The title track opens with a luminous, repeating synthtic chime motif echoing upon an undulating low drone. Soon the melodic repetition drops off and an ambient bed opens out as if the listener has strayed into deeper water. Here a variation on the previous motif begins to well up with more of a piano sound, evolving and meandering until a second evaporation. Now a distinctly different liquid environment emerges that is more suggestive of surface water or at least of the presence of trapped air: laps and splashes rippling about a sybilant purring noise that recurrs in organic pairings establishing a loose rhythm. Drfiting piano notes once more provide intriguing melody, deep single tones and lazy higher runs. At around this mid point of the twelve minutes fifty three seconds of Medusazoa a serene beat fades in, simple hihats, programmed snare and lazy kick building around the nodding measure of the pulsing purr. For a while now this dreamy rhythmic pool of lilting piano melody floats in blissful reverie until the beat ebbs away at around the nine and a half minute mark. The purring remains a while upon a much more distant memory of percussion, reverberating piano phrases thinning out upon a low drone echoing the introduction until stillness. A very relaxing composition, highly evocative of the underwater environment Dan is summoning up and the delicate life forms upon which this album concentrates.

With the music of his album "Medusazoa", on which work was started in July 2010, it seems Mr Pound is trying to come closer to the sound of Steve Roach.

The seven tracks feature so-called underwater dream zone music, based and built from analog modular synth drones, patches and effects, made to accompany the fluid movements and colorful bio-luminescence of the jellyfish as it gently moves through the streams.

The free form textural movements on "Medusazoa" are characterized by a strong organic undercurrent, smoothly drifting along with crustacean-like effects and poly-sequential, fractal rhythms and pulses. In addition, the unhurried, chill-out atmosphere of liquid ambient spheres occasionally feels like a living organism, especially on the the 12-minute title track.  All in all, "Medusazoa" is a chill-out soundscape release.

C. Bert Strolenberg
for Sonic Immersion

Sonic Curiosity review of MEDUSAZOA
June 2011

www.soniccuriosity.com/sc497.htm

This release from 2011 offers 71 minutes of gently pulsating electronic music.

While Pound's releases usually feature a mixture of natural (albeit ethnic) instruments with hard technology, this time his gear is exclusively synthesizers.

The electronics are soft and enticing. Harmonic textures blend with a series of auxiliary electronic pulsations to create a melodic vista of submerged definition. The tonalities are soft, yet display a sneaky sense of power, the type of influence that by the time you notice it you are deeply bewitched by the ethereal environs.

Ah, but it's not all swaying tones. Keyboards are utilized to flavor the commodious passages with touches of sinuous grace. A few pieces are blessed by celestial piano. But the music's strength invariably resides in the interplay of sighing atmospherics and how the lead chords often mirror their exquisite substantiality.

Percussion is generally absent, leaving most of the tracks to shine as pensive structures of rarefied air. While one track does feature percussion (albeit soft), most tempos take the form of chittering effects that lend ticking punctuation from their carefully immersed vantage.

The compositions are inspired by the fluidity and luminosity of jellyfish, and the tunes excellently reflects that intention. The music's aquatic nature is subtly enhanced by watery effects hiding in the mix. A satisfying immersion is in store for all.

Dan Pound - "Medusazoa"
(PoundSounds 2011)

From Aural Innovations #43 (October 2011)

Atmospheric sound creation is at the fundamental core of Medusazoa. It is ambient and slow paced throughout, its synthesized structures are minimal and etheric, as they play with the concept of underwater environments, revealing the aquatic dreams of the jellyfish and the sombreness of the willick, as if it were only yesterday that I mingled amongst them with my seaweed helmet and cockleshell shield, meditating in the kelp forrests stoned! Yes, we've all been there! Haven't we?

The sound in question is totally synthesizer based, and it throws out similarities to later era Klaus Schulze more so than it does to Tangerine Dream, and even though there is an essence of Tangerine Dream I feel that it sits better with good old Klaus. There is a subtleness of tone that evolves from start to finish, and headphones, I feel, are a must because of this as it is the way that nature intended. It also guaranties the listener the journey that they so desire without the distractions of the outside world. The production is very good and on the whole it is an interesting venture and concept. I like it.

Dan Pound has captured a feel here that is very meditative and subduing and has produced a CD worthy of nods from even the most hardcore of synthesizer fiends. He has taken the basis of drone and took it somewhere outside that mindset, which for me is a must as certain drone music cannot escape the drone. Medusazoa certainly escapes the drone over its 70 minutes or so and moves into beat and composition, repetitive as it may be, but that is no hardship. You may feel you have already heard this track within the last track, but that is the subtleness of its evolution. No wild changes in sound here, just one steady journey from the beginning to the end. Nice work.
www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue43/danpound.html