Cyber Zen Sound Engine/Matt Borghi: The Intercepted Transmissions Cyber Zen Sound Engine/Matt Borghi: The Intercepted Transmissions (N-Light-N Records - 2001) Is it autumn in your world? With the collaboration of Cyber Zen Sound Engine (GraceNoteX and Smith6079) and Matt Borghi, you can fall into the fading hues of a most personal autumn anytime, anywhere. When evocative The Intercepted Transmissions hangs in the air, you'll feel all the beauty as well as the pensive undertones. Of course, to drift so easily upon such sonorous sadness can bring great joy to the deep listener. Barely audible voices seem to be heard beneath the soft, simply hovering fluctuations of Mars Infers. Faint rhythmic presences bump across the distance of some windswept plains as rippling drones merge with bittersweet tones in Echo Location and Lost Loves. Against a somberly irradiated glare, delicate piano phrases trickle longingly, speaking melancholy understandable In Almost Any Language. The bassoon-like lows and metallic miasma of eerie He Called Me Butterfly (7:14) is underwritten with scruffy beats (kinda like clunky hip-hop slowed to a funereal pace). Deliciously spooky vibes waft through The Hill Over Nagasaki Harbor (2:09) which is adorned with vaguely Oriental notes. Phantasmal presences are Passing Us Unaware through deep, undulating fluids. A little bad weather accentuates Endless Rain; amid crackling thunder, soundstreams ooze alluringly as regular tonal pulses keep time and sparse piano notes tinkle. The subtly gorgeous Code Breaking slips into Mend, where it is joined by subdued drumtronics An impressive blend of restrained music and more-abstract atmospherics, The Intercepted Transmissions evoke sweet sorrow with its not-too-pretty prettiness. This comingling of Cyber Zen Sound Engine and Matt Borghi exemplifies what such collaborations should do... turning and reinforcing each artist's strengths into a new greater whole. A definitely recommended 9.1 floatation into innermost spaces. Go to the source: www.cyber-zen.com This review posted November 4, 2001 AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).