I suppose we can call this my State of the AmbiEntrance Address; I've been at it for almost 2 years now and the evolution has been exciting... from a handful of older reviews to monthly reviews of new releases, interviews with artists from across the range of ambient/ electronic/ experimental music, and, a favorite of mine, the Question of the Month, QOM. I couldn't do it without the gracious assistance of the artists themselves, helpful folks at the labels, obliging distributors, and fellow listeners as well. I want to collectively thank everyone who's contributed to our growth. I decided that a new look was definitely in order, something cleaner. Contemporary and high-tech, but not too quasi-futuristic. The first thing you may notice is the absence of Link O'Rama... Frankly, he didn't do much around here, leaving me to be his flunkie. When he skipped out with the AmbiEntrance slush fund, I didn't try to track him down. Of course, Link also took his Thumbs of Opinion with him, so I had to change the Rating System as well... Overall ratings now are done on a scale of 1.0 to 10.0, which offers many more degrees of scoring control; As always, I will try to effectively describe "why" any particular release received its score... This numerical rating will also appear in the each monthly line-up of reviews (and within the overviews), if you want to read the "best" ones first perhaps. Navigation should be fairly straight forward. Anywhere you see (like at the top of this page) the AmbiEntrance logo, it will take you back to the index page. Each review, or monthly feature page will include a link at bottom taking you back to that month. At lower left you'll see the overall 1999 image map which isn't working yet because we've only gotten January underway. Eventually, you'll click on the Number of the month you want (the dark pointer will indicate the Current Month, and the central 99 will open up a chronological index of the year. The longest and shortest track times are given parenthetically (tho I've decided there's no reason to additionally say "This is the longest/shortest track...") Incidentally, these times come from my Apple CD Audio Player window and don't always perfectly align with the time given in a disc's liner notes. As far as arrangement, each month's upload will remain as its own page (no more linking ALL reviews together alphabetically, which was a humongous pain), although for your reference, I will begin compiling indexes within each category for convenient lookup. All previous material will remain exactly as before, available untouched in the AmbiEntrance Archive. Other goals for 1999 include expanding my scope of reviews to cover live shows, videos and software which may be of interest. Time permitting I may start up a mailing list as a preview and to let readers know exactly how far off schedule each upload will be. I always appreciate feedback and there's an e-mail link to me on every page, so I'm always within reach. Bear with me during the changeover... additional pages will be located in the Misc. section including an updated version of The Ratings, Letters and any other uncategorizable things like this little article here. Happy belated New Year to all; let's hope for the best. And thanks again. Jan. 27, 1999 David J Opdyke AmbiEntrance © 1999-97 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).