Album Notes

Contact Point is the second live release by MoIT, and feels warm and earthly compared to their debut double CD set Everlasting Moment. While their earlier album explored the edges, dynamics and tension of space and atmosphere, Contact Point presents the more unified themes of cosmic, biospheric and macrocosmic interaction. Through the use of environmental field recordings, drifting melodies and soft sonic textures set against submerged drones, billowing sequencer patterns and breezy guitar and synth lead lines, Contact Point depicts the mystery and beauty of telluric ideals. While their music touches on many of the hallmarks of Berlin-School Spacemusic, MoIT brings their own influences and innovation to the process. The result is a sound that is uniquely individual. Music from Contact Point has been drawn from several live performances and features definitive concert versions of classic MoIT pieces such as "Fortescue", "Serenity Cove" and "Nightscene". The disc plays for about one hour, easily flowing through a variety of themes, moods and styles of Spacemusic.

Review: Contact Point

The Ministry of Inside Things is the Philadelphia-based space music duo of Chuck van Zyl (synths) and Art Cohen (guitar). Individually, both Chuck and Art have been involved in the Philadelphia electronic/space music scene for well over 20 years. Chuck is best known for hosting the Philadelphia radio show Star's End. He has a number of solo releases (cassette and CD) as well as collaborations with Peter Gulch of the Nightcrawlers. Art has a number of solo releases as well. Chuck and Art formed The Ministry of Inside Things about 6 years ago and have released two CDs of live material, EVERLASTING MOMENT (2002) and CONTACT POINT. Their music is firmly rooted in the Berlin space music school of Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra, and Klaus Schulze. There are seven tracks on CONTACT POINT that take you from quiet ambience to energetic rhythms. The obvious comparisons are with Tangerine Dream (cyclical pulsating sequencer patterns), but I also detect the influence of Pink Floyd's "Echoes". On top of this are some artistic found sounds peppered throughout the CD (lapping water and chirping crickets). The duo of Chuck and Art, with their musical roots in two different genres (electronic and rock), work together to craft beautiful music that can stand the test of time. Highly recommended to all fans of space music.

Henry Schneider (Aug06)