Various Artists - The Art Of Chill (Platipus Records)

To what extent is it necessary to be entirely strung out before you can chill out? Does the concept of chill out exist solely within a dialectical relation to getting cranked up (thesis), and strung out (antithesis)? Is chill out a modem phenomenon? Or can it be seen as a timeless one? Can we speak meaningfully of chilling out as an art? Or is it an art only in the sense that love or war can also be viewed as arts? Are the sleeve notes for this compilation of the finest contemporary chill out going to consist entirely of questions? And if this is the case will they themselves require their own equivalent chill out, in the form of a lot of answers?

To this question let me say, emphatically, yes.

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The melodic and atmospheric roots of club trance and progressive house lie in the layered sounds of 70's and early-80's psychedelic ambient ala Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. So it's only fitting that iconic UK trance and progressive label Platipus Records launched the first volume of this downtempo series by focusing on ambient material and remixes from its own artists.

For those who care for electronic music history, the first of Platipus's Art Of Chill compilations is the sound of trance leaving the beats of clubland behind and returning to the source. For anyone else it's simply a terrific after-party or late night swim in a deep, multi-coloured ocean of sound. Its studded with downtempo gems that dip into the Platipus catalogue as far back as eight years. Melodic, ethereal tracks like Union Jack's "Water Drums" and Kansai's ambient mix of "Rococco" are both stunning in their own gentle way. The better known Sinead O'Conner and Binary Finary both shine via previously unheard remixes of their tunes "Troy" and the Binary Finary trance anthem "1998" as re-imagined in cold deep space by Neo & Farina. Although a handful of tracks here have appeared on many other comps, the quality of the Platipus content puts this album up there with the best ambient trance collections around.

The pleasant but non-essential Art Of Chill 2 (2005) is far more generic, throwing in just about every strain of downtempo across another two disc set. Thanks to screamingly obvious inclusions like FC Kahuna's "Hayling" and Bent's "Swollen" it simply doesn't distinguish itself enough from many other comps on the market.

Fortunately the series gets well and truly back on track with Art Of Chill 3, a rich, mind-altering mix complied by old hippie techno-ambient rockers System 7 aka Miquette Giraudy and Steve Hillage. It's a colourful, harmonious and at times surreal blend of warm dubby lounge, Hillage's own electronica (as System 7 and Mirror System), current psy-chill tracks from names like Shulman and Blutech, and folksy detours through India and the Far East. An undoubted highlight is System 7's own "Kupuri", a slow-building shamanic groove of rare hypnotic power with Hillage's famous gliss guitar soaring sweetly overhead.

Art Of Chill 4 from 2007 was complied by Alex Paterson of The Orb and was hands-down the best thing he'd put his name to since The Orb's glory days of the early 90's. Given his love of sampling and encyclopedic knowledge of all things ambient he proves the perfect choice to create a highly distinctive mix. It's nothing less than a two hour trip through Paterson's extraordinary personal music collection from the 70's onwards with an emphasis on atmospheric ambience, soundtracks, pretty landscapes and stoned, quirky downbeats. Several new Orb tracks are also effective. Given the chance to run amok with his record collection, Paterson shows a surprising lack of self-indulgence. The album gels beautifully and its the most ambitious entry in the series.

----- Reviewed by Mike G - ambientmusicguide.com

Volume 5 of the compilation (Mixed by Bent) is not included in the above review but definitely deserves a mention, this is nothing like previous Art of Chill releases. This mix offers up alternative, piano, instrumental and classical chill out. With Big guns such as Craig Armstrong and Kirsty Hawkshaw supporting nicely, its the likes of Ben Benjamin, Nonostar and Helios that do this mix justice. CD1 goes very classical, and CD2 opts for a more ‘Art of Chill’ sound. An essential mix for anybody wanting to chill the fuck out. Looking forward to the next compilation!

Download Link - Mediafire - Art of Chill Vol. 1
Download Link - Mediafire - Art of Chill Vol. 2
Download Link - Mediafire - Art of Chill Vol. 3
Download Link - Mediafire - Art of Chill Vol. 4
Download Link - Mediafire - Art of Chill Vol. 5

Mikis Theodorakis - The Ballad of Mauthausen

Michael "Mikis" Theodorakis was born July 29, 1925 and is a Greek songwriter and famous composer. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Serpico (1973). He is viewed as Greece's best-known living composer.

Tracklist:
01-Asma Asmaton - Song Of Songs
02-O Andonis - Anthony
03-O Drapetis - The Hostage
04-Otan Teliosi O Polemos - When The War Ends
05-Kourastika Na Se Krato - I'm Tired Of Holding Your Hand
06-O Iskios Epese Varis - Deep Shadows
07-Pira Tous Drmous Tou Ouranou - I Took To The Streets Of Heaven
08-Stou Kosmou Tin Aniforia - The Uphill Road
09-To Ekremes - The Pendulum
10-To Oniro kapnos - The Dream Went Up In Smoke

Download Link - Mediafire


The album "The Ballad Of Mauthausen" is one of the most haunting and beautiful pieces of music I have encountered in recent times. For music which was released in 1974 it is just as striking in present times as  it was then - I do regard it as timeless (although I shudder at the thought of using that adjective). The songs have a common thread: they express in powerful music and lyrics the terror, the agony and torture of the concentration camp and its effects on the minds and bodies of the inmates. Best-known of the 4 songs is “Asma Asmaton” expressing the anguish of a Jewish prisoner on learning that the women he loves has just been sent to the gas chamber. Maria Faranouri delivers a remarkable performance as in the fourth song ”Otan teliosi O Polemos” ( "When the War Ends") which portrays the life-in-death fantasy of a Jewish internee who dreams of the end of the war, or of life in almost surrealist images.

Mikis Theodorakis says himself of the work: "A good friend of mine, the poet Iacovos Kambanellis, was a prisoner in Mauthausen during World War II. At the beginning of the sixties, he wrote his memories of this time under the title of "Mauthausen". In 1965, he also wrote four poems on the subject and gave me the opportunity to set them to music. I did this with much pleasure, firstly because I liked the poetry of the texts, and secondly because I was myself locked up during the Nazi occupation in Italian and German prisons, but mainly because this composition gives us the chance to remind the younger generation of history, that history must never be forgotten.

First and foremost, of course, the Mauthausen Cantata is addressed to all those who suffered under Fascism and fought against it. We must keep the Nazi crimes continually in our minds, because that is the only guarantee and the only way to assure that they are not repeated. And we can see every day that the ghost of Fascist is far from being laid. It seldom shows its real face, but Fascist cultures and mentalities exist all over the world. For us, who had to live through this time of horror, the most important task is to protect our children against this peril."

The six songs that make up the rest of the album, four ballads and two lively, up tempo ones, all demonstrate Farandouris’ distinctive dramatic style, which adds an essentially Greek touch of pathos and nostalgia even in the lively gaiety of the two faster songs.

Reproduced here is the English translation of the lyrics of the four poems by Iacovos Kambanellis:

1 - SONG OF SONGS

My love, how beautiful she is
In her everyday dress.
With a little comb on her hair.
Nobody know how beautiful she was.
Young girls of Auschwitz.
Young girls of Dachau.
Have you seen my love?
We saw her on a long journey
She no longer had her everyday dress
Or the little comb on her hair.

My love, how beautiful she is.
Fondled by her mother
And the kisses of her brother
Nobody knew how beautiful she was
Young girls of Mauthausen,
Young girls of Belsen,
Have you seen my love?
We saw her in the frozen square
A number in her white hand
And a yellow star on her heart.

2 - ANDONIS

There, on the great staircase,
On the staircase of tears.
In the dark sentry of death,
In the quarry of lamentation.
Jews and partisans are marching.
Jews and partisans are falling,
They carry a rock on their backs.
A rock, a cross of death.

It's there that Andonis hears a voice.
The voice
"Oh comrade, oh, comrade.
Help me climb the stairs."
But there, on the great staircase.
On the staircase of tears.
Help is an insult.
Compassion is a curse.

The Jew falls on the stair,
And the staircase turns red
"And you, my boy, you, come this way
Get hold of a second rock."
I lift two rocks.
I lift three rocks.
Me, my name is Andonis.
And if you are a man, well then, come here
On this marble threshing-floor.

3 - THE FUGITIVE

Yannos Ber who comes from the North
Cannot stand the barbed wire.
He takes heart he takes wing,
He runs through the villages of the valley.

Good lady, give me a piece of bread.
Give me some clothes to change.
l have to go on a long journey.
And over lakes to fly.

Wherever he goes, wherever he stops
Terror and fear beat their wings,
And a terrible voice is heard.
"Hide from the fugitive."

Christians, I am no murderer.
No wild animal to eat you
I have escaped from prison
To go back to my home.

Ah! What solitude of death
In this country of Bertolt Brecht!
Yannos is handed over to the SS
They take him now for execution.

4 - WHEN THE WAS IS OVER

Girl with the weeping eyes,
Girl with the frozen hands.
Forget me not when the war is over.

Joy of the world. come to the gate
So that we could embrace in the street.
So that we could kiss in the square.

So that we could make love in the quarry.
In the gas chambers,
On the staircase, in the observation post.

Love in the middle of noon
In all the corners of death
Till its shadow will be no more.