Album Notes

The long awaited release of darshan ambient's sequel to The Zen Master's Diary is here. Although not so much a concept album as the previous recording, Autumn's Apple is a dedication to family, children and love of tradition. There is a very different feel to Autumn's Apple that can be traced to Allison's love of soul records he collected as a child. That and a very distinct chill-out lounge flavor of the CD give this release a fascinating meld of soul-groove and ambient electronica. Also features the talents of Jeff Kowal (Terra Ambient) on guitar.

Michael Allison has been making ambient, electronic & experimental music for over 20 years now and he's been lucky enough to work with some of the finest musicians on the planet. Though he now works primarily alone, the influence of those great artists is ever present in his music.  

"Since the early years of Nona Hendryx & Zero Cool, China Shop and ultimately Empty House I've enjoyed working with experimental sounds and eclectic pop compositions. Having been a bass player most of my career I decided to switch to synthesizers in order to realize my ideas more clearly."

He generally creates his  pieces using sound loops at varying lengths. Sometimes searching for that gorgeous lost chord for hours before landing upon a certain gem and then proceeding to incorporate rhythms and melodies that suggest a certain nuance or dreamlike emotion mostly resembling the sort of music he heard in his head as a young boy.

Michael's  instrument setup is very simple. He uses a Kurzweil K2000VP as his main synthesizer. Software such as Acid Pro 5, Ableton Live 4 and Cakewalk Project5 enable him to capture his  ideas and transfer them to disc very quickly.