Product Description
2 Leaving Earth
3 Interlude – Hope for Early Microbial Forms
4 Wave of Glass
5 Sunlit Dream of Venusian Orchids
6 Polygraphic Wildlife Detected
7 Do You Hear Faint Music?
8 Fathomless
9 Returning
10 Out (Wind and Sun)
Best New Release 2022 – WPPM Sound + Vision
“…a beautiful slab of gentle floating ambient electronics that coats the listeners’ spirit with subtle power and grace.” -Peter Thelen, Exposé
Superradiance is the dazzling 12th studio album by star-faring Australian electronic musician Deepspace and his first on Projekt Records. It is dream-like electronic ambient music with glittering, minimal melodic and harmonic expanses impressionistically cast as sonic light, appearing and disappearing as it overlaps to form new hues that shimmer, interact and then vanish.
The album is a conceptual expedition through the heavens. The listener’s ideas about space and our species’ journey inform the narrative detail with tantalizing clues subtly guiding the experience. Polygraphic wildlife, Venusian orchids, leaving Earth, microbial lifeforms, these evocative ideas and titles are meant as prompts: an image, a feeling that activates the listener’s own odyssey.
The intermingling of science and art hold sway over the conceptual and stylistic elements of Superradiance. Serene and futuristic scenarios wash over the listener beckoning them onward into the “sky inside the mind” — their own imagination. Influences include Brian Eno and Steve Roach as well as art music composers such as Claude Debussy and Francis Poulenc appearing as an influence in some of the harmony and the ephemeral and somehow proudly introverted nature of the musical parts.
“Space music fans as well as aficionados of imaginative soundscape ambient will want to dig this beautifully made recording 100%.” -sonicimmersion.org
BIO
Deepspace is Brisbane, Australia-based ambient musician Mirko Ruckels. His hypnotic, glacial, dreamy and atmospheric work is created with various synthesisers, software and acoustic instruments such as bells, guitars and piano. When he was a little boy in Germany (he is German/French) he would slip into a reverie at hearing a distant lawn mower, church bells, passing planes, or the rumblings of far-off trains. This love of drones and ambient sound led to a wonderful moment upon discovering there are other like-minded artists and listeners who also enjoyed atmospheric environments that evoke liminal moods and spaces. Ruckels discovered the River of Appearance by vidnaObmana and became obsessed with the strange slow, sun-filled expanses that defied conventional harmony, arrangement and instrumentation. Later, Structures from Silence by Steve Roach was the next piece in the puzzle which inspired him to explore and create his own music. He says “I literally had no idea how to make ambient music and just felt my way in the dark.” In 2006, Deepspace was born. Themes range from macro — such as space, underwater, deserts and science fiction imaginings, to micro — internal states and microscopic life.
Deepspace has released eleven albums, ten independently and The Glittering Domain (2009) through American label Hypnos. He has two 2021 collaborations with theAdelaidean Adrift and Antigravity, both on Projekt Records.
Reviews Editor –
From Audion #72
Apparently the “12th studio album by star-faring Australian electronic musician Deepspace”, Projekt here present yet another prolific artist in the new-age, space ambient vein, but one with a difference. Defying the artist moniker, this release never gets that deep or spacey, which is largely down to it being comprised of ten tracks in the range of 1 to 13 minutes, so it only has the chance to be really deep or expansive on a couple of the longest pieces.
As such, Superradiance is aptly brighter, and much more varied, than most such releases of the current Projekt roster due to the number of tracks involved and the varied range of moods. The lush tones of a lot of it reminds me of artists like Aeoliah and Iasos from the 1980s, albeit in smaller bites, and the use of underpinning bass lines in some tracks gives it a different depth. There’s also much use of deep Michael Stearns like drones and sound dimensions, and big stretchy oozes. In all, quite a nice one, and certainly a talent for fans of the genre to investigate. -Alan Freeman
Reviews Editor –
From Dave Aftandilian
I have long loved space ambient, so of course I am a fan of Deepspace’s new release. On this peaceful and resonant journey through the universe, it is the stark brightness that strikes me most: the shimmering of stars floating atop the cosmic ocean’s waves, pulsing their cryptic, particular messages into the void. Next I feel a sense of floating in vast, inexplicably warm interstellar waters, gently enfolded and buoyed as I gaze in wonder at the laughing multicolored beings all around me.
Reviews Editor –
From Exposé
Deepspace is the moniker of German-born synthesist and composer Mirko Ruckels, now resident in Australia. His work first came to our attention via his two 2021 collaborations with TheAdelaidean, Adrift and Antigravity, but he has been creating his electronic ambient soundscapes (as Deepspace) since around 2007, and as of this writing there are close to a dozen full-length albums, in addition to the two aforementioned collaborations. On the side, from 2012-2016 Ruckels took a detour into the moody atmospheric and psychedelic pop world as Mirko Polo, and has released two full-length albums and an EP as such. He also had a couple other projects going with his brother Jeremy — the first is a power trio called Les Fabricants, the other is as a duo creating C64-inspired computer game music called Pilot of the Future. But I digress.
With Superradiance, Deepspace has released his first ambient release on the Projekt label, a beautiful slab of gentle floating ambient electronics that coats the listeners’ spirit with subtle power and grace. The album consists of ten tracks ranging from about one minute to over thirteen, each with its own unique character. The opener “Now the Balloon Rises into the Sky” is an appropriately titled launch into the floating realm, a world of soft pillowy sounds of overlapping chords that makes for a soothing experience. “Leaving Earth” takes it a step further, with some mysterious radio dialog setting the stage for a colorful and shimmering dream journey. Other standouts include the expansive “Sunlit Dream of Venusian Orchids” where deep random pulses underly glorious washes of tonal color, and the longest cut of them all — “Do You Hear Faint Music?” which wanders gently through myriad dream sequences, reaching deep into the cosmic spiral leading to a mysterious and peaceful state. “Fathomless” continues the journey, although it’s an even more glacial paced exploration of space time. All good, and where I want to be. If one is looking for a floating passage through soft waves and sparkling stars on your path to slumber, Superradiance is your ticket. -Peter Thelen
reviews editor –
A review from Sonic Immersion
The music of Mirko Ruckels, aka Deepspace, has always been a fine vehicle to detach from worldly affairs. Now there’s Superradiance, out as a download on the established Projekt Records label, where the composer takes the next step by taking his listeners into the deep end and far off worlds. Enter the galactic expanse with 64 minutes of emotive, overly lush, wide-spread textures blended with harmonic resonating ethereal tapestries dressed with delicate perfumes of awe and wonder. Creating in-depth atmospheres as well as senses of time and weightlessness comes to fruition best on the three longer tracks — all clocking over 10 minutes — found near the end of the album. Space music fans as well as aficionados of imaginative soundscape ambient will want to dig this beautifully made recording 100%.