Dylan Tauber: “Sounds From Space” transports us outside of the realms of planet earth

Dylan Tauber, a multi-instrumentalist, visual artist, writer and recording artist based in northern Israel, has seen his artistic endeavors take him from New York to Jerusalem and around the world. After travelling the planet since 2001 – beginning and ending in Israel – and countless album and book releases since, Son of Waves Studios now presents Tauber’s twelfth studio album, “Sounds From Space”. This album also celebrates the twentieth anniversary of Tauber’s debut musical project, the “Double Mirrors” anthology – an immersive multimedia experience created by Tauber in 1996, encompassing music, a book, video slides and a companion website. Dylan incidentally runs a network of 15 web sites which include an online imaging / photo gallery, and a video archive. This network of web sites has reached over 2.3 million page views since it launched initially.

“Sounds from Space”, which features ambient soundscapes, and the vocals of Enlia and Francessca Belisario, is one of the few albums by Tauber to not have its core theme linked in some way, to water, the oceans and in particular dolphins.

This album in fact transports us outside of the realms of planet earth. Even if ambient instrumentals are not really your area, when you see Dylan Tauber’s name on the docket, rationality should evaporate pretty fast. Tauber delivers atmospheric, melodic and at times complex arrangements, but mostly allowing lots of room for personal interpretation, like classical music.

I am grateful I no longer attempt to analyze his style to death, as I would simply end up being like any other schmuck who tries to read too deeply into the most basic of beautiful notions and build myself up an opinion based on theoretical pomposity.

Tauber’s music is evocative, emotional and mood-inducing, there’s really not much more music needs, to profoundly connect with listeners than that. At each full listen, the ears pick up something new in the layers, which is admirable because Tauber has a way of blending it all so seamlessly.

From the moment “11:18:16” sets off, smooth, flowing synthesized rhythm’s peppered with deep, reverberating melodies instill a wonderful sense of openness, of the vast expanses of space. It’s definitely an ambient album, but it’s more of an experience than anything else – it feels like you’re in another world when you’re listening to this.

The production here is amazing as are the vocals which are never overwhelming but complementing. Enlia is dreamy and hypnotic on “Clouds” and “Lost On Mars”. While Francessca Belisario is warm and soulful on “Take Me To Space” and “He Loves Carmen”.

One of the album’s strongest cuts is “12-16-16”, an immaculately paced bit of progressive euphoria. The rhythm is heavy but dexterous, voluptuously textured while moving at a steady speed. Melodic flow is maintained more assiduously than anywhere else on “Abandoned Planet (Feat. Enlia)”, and not a second is wasted in reaching a soothing climax. The album is a consistently satisfying groove machine, and a worthy entry to the upper ranks of the ambient canon.

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