Immersion Theory's maiden voyage, The Icarus Foray, is a transcendent auditory journey through the universe and into the heavens. With roots firmly entrenched in the Space Music genre, Immersion Theory draw from a deep well of soul-nourishing refreshment and create an opportunity for profound introspection and personal discovery.
To that end, the project embraces orchestral motifs unwound into ambient soundscapes, deep meditative electronic swells, and subtle storytelling components, engaging both close and ambient listening in equal parts.
Blending experience in music, film making and the visual arts, Immersion Theory enlist a number of different creative facets with an eye towards creating unified works of music, storytelling and sound pictures. With Robert Rich's deft manipulation of the final masters, The Icarus Foray explores the byways of ambient space music towards a simple and intuitive conclusion: that science and spirituality are intertwined in the search for the divine.
Reviews:
Those of you out there looking for a good release in the genre of deep ambient space music, should make sure to get a copy of this beauty. . .
The four extended, spacious tracks continue along the immersive, sonic path of Steve Roach, Jonn Serrie and even Constance Demby, but make their own cinematic statement by Austin’s personal twists and turns.
Soft choir and orchestral textures are accompanied by fluid ambient sound washes and ethereal NASA radio transmissions. They all shape shift gently as the space journey slowly unfolds and meanders as we float in the spacious realms and grandness of the universe, on our way to the next cosmic destination.
All in all, "The Icarus Foray" – which is graced with beautiful cd artwork - is deep ambient/space music at its finest.
A highly recommended space cruiser!
Bert Strolenberg / www.sonicimmersion.org
The Icarus Foray (59'02") may seem inspired by the works of Jonn Serrie, Constance Demby or Kevin Braheny as some of its themes and motifs feel similar to quintessential recordings by these three stalwart spacemusic artists. But the first release by Immersion Theory, the musical persona of John-Mark Austin, shares more than just the tonal characteristics of the classics. Throughout four tracks Austin contemplates the grandeur of the cosmos and mankind's attempts at communion with it. With airy synth pads, deep sweeping tones and reverberant waves of electronic harmonies each composition builds a delicate atmosphere. Combining this with astronaut voices, ethereal choirs, rumbling spaceship effects and a dynamic musical range extending from the sustaining quietude of space to exultant orchestral crescendos gives us an album equally at home in the planetarium as it is on a remote hillside gazing at stars.
- Chuck van Zyl / STAR'S END 8 May 2008
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