Dr Atmo - Quiet Life (2014)

Two years have passed since the first request from British music label txt. And more than three years of painstakingly crafted and carefully arranged sounds have flowed into the production.

Ten years after his first album sound artist Dr.Atmo introduces "Quiet Life" the first album out under his own name. Eight meditational tracks in downright classic ambient style, meandering like a brook through the Far East, on a journey through distant lands. Of oriental origin himself, in the spirit of former chill-out days, the Doctor reveals himself to be an itinerant wanderer and cosmopolitan collector, always scattering regional instruments and sounds into his translucent scapes to give them an ethnic depth. A prime example of this is "Road" and "Hang Garden" where their Iranian and Kurdish spirit is drawn from the strings of the kamancheh. Or the Indonesian influences of "Batubulan" and "Subak" with the captivating bamboo sounds of the angklung. The exotic instruments were in part played by local musicians on Atmos' travels to foreign climes. In addition the chill-out master utilizes old radio recordings as well as the playful skills of Berlin-based Hassam Ramzy student Michael Metzler (hang). In this way Dr. Atmo avoids any dull sound-block-pushing. More than the half of the album is actually live recording. This leads to an incredibly vivid organic and dynamic sound, despite its tonal reduction.

In that respect, special aural attention has been earned by the track "Find your Home", drawn with a fine pop-quill: with the lyrical harp playing by Simonetta as well as the alluring voice of Nuwella Love (amongst others Atmo And The Lightz) this modern lullaby ensures that even the most wound-up listener will fall into their pillows totally relaxed. A further highlight is tucked away right at the end of the album. Here Dr. Atmo managed to get none other than the godfather of chill, Mixmaster Morris, to collaborate on a happily pulsating track in the style of Cluster, the Krautrock band from Düsseldorf.

In this way, eight tracks were created and melt away, like mirages shimmering over hot asphalt, somewhere between illusion and reality, clarity and poetry, tradition and modernity.

The fact that "Quiet Life" is part of the musical tradition of the old FAX releases also has its reasons. Not only did Dr. Atmo lay the foundations stone for his career with classics like "Omid/Hope" on Peter Kuhlmann's label. But txt-label head Anthony Norris is also a dyed-in-the-wool Pete Namlook fan of the first hour. One could perhaps see "Quiet Life" as a homage to the various FAX founders of 2012. Chill in peace.