Healer new album "Higher Grounds" CDCF11, Candyfli

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Candyflip Records in Greece is out with the second album by Healer, Michael Andresen from Sweden. His first album Wonder Ground was released on Flying Rhino Records in 2000. Now that Flying Rhino is bankrupt, he has started releasing on Candyflip Records. Healer is his ambient project, but he has also a psytrance project called 12 Moons.

Healer "Higher Grounds" Candyflip Records 2004 (CFCD11)

1. The Answer
2. Polarity
3. Three
4. Infinity And Beyond
5. Hibernation
6. Art Of Trancelucency
7. Resonate Within
8. Apnea

Healer certainly likes to ad an atmospheric vibe to his music, both in his trance and ambient projects. The first track we get here starts really beautiful with a floating atmospheric sound. A little melody works its way slowly into the track together with some very relaxed, careful beats. A really nice start on this album, perfect when you are tired and want to relax. Track 2 goes floating too, but in a more mystic, deep way. Not much beats at all. Everything is just floating with massive beautiful relaxing sounds. Totally relaxing, deep ambient. After a while we also get some beautiful melodies and some piano. Track 3 moves a little bit away from that totally floating vibe. Still, we get tons of beautiful sounds and melodies. This one has some dubby beats and flute alike melodies. Nice. Track 4 is a slow drifting track with a deep mystic vibe and some beautiful piano. Totally relaxing and beautiful all the way through. I’m sure I will play this a lot this summer.

Track 5 has a more dramatic vibe. This track was originally released on the Ease Division 1 compilation on Spiral Trax Records in 2002. A nice chill out compilation which was compiled by Healer himself. This track is floating all the way through, with some nice relaxed melodies and chilled beats. While track 1-5 is called passage one, track 6-8 is called passage 2. And yes, track 6 takes a slightly different direction. This goes definitely darker, still with that totally floating vibe. This one might sound a bit intense and isn’t among the most interesting tracks on this album, but doesn’t sound bad. Track 7 goes even darker and more dramatic. Still very beautiful and relaxing, with mystic sounds that you might imagine is from outer space. This one is just drifting with no beats at all. Reminds me a bit of Pete Namlook. The last track we get here is one of the most beautiful tracks I have heard by this guy so far. This one is also just floating without beats, and the sounds are incredibly beautiful.

In my opinion, this album is definitely better than the first Healer album. If you like floating, atmospheric, deep ambient music, you should definitely check out this. A fresh breath away from the usual ethno chill. Pure, relaxing, deep ambient music for your home listening after work or whenever you are tired and want to just drift away in beautiful sounds.

PKS (trance-net, NO)
 
roight then.

I'm listening now! Well first impressions are ... lush!!!!! I'm in my spinny computer chair which reclines, and I'm just drifting awayyyyy......

with albums like this, I always feel that commenting on each and every track is a bit... not how it makes ME feel as such.

so generalised commentary:

if there is such a thing as a sky hook, this is it! Beautiful walls of soft sound punctuated by actively bright melodies. The sounds employed are often metallic ringing and gently pulsating ones. Very intelligent useage of the percussive elements. Lashings of reverb, and only challenging when YOU want it to be :) It can be treated as a beautiful backdrop and you can get into it on an analytical level.

the division into two sections is nice. the first section is great, but after a false and somewhat repetitive start, the second section gets going. Frankly it just drifts away. Writing about this is a bit like discussing the architectural merits of Escher though!

Highly, HIGHLY enjoyed. Go and buy it!
 
..just wanna say..

Oh yes!

Gotta love this one!!

Suits my wandering sunday morning mind just fine.. :smokingr:

I´m not really into putting numbers or grades at things but i have to say that this one made me feel real good.

So i have to say, alot of thumbs up for takin me to Higher Grounds..
 
This release brings out what is actually real in music and eternally timeless. Because these oscillations are always pervasive and Michael Andersen, the healer, is one of the few that can catch and take hold of them for some moments. Listen, feel and ease!

Rakete (Mushroom Magazine, DE)
 
should be arriving on my doorstep anytime today (foot-tapping!!) but was hoping for this morning... also the 12moons too - yay! first healer album out in 2000 was lovely, dreamy ambient drift thru psyspace and just the soundtrack for evenings and going to bed ... here's hoping for another gem (!)

xx
 
I second that! Healer's first album was just so brilliant! :smokingr:
Very high expectations on this one!
:sun:
 
:obviouslyslightlybiasedbutsmiley:

this is a lovely piece of work, a great and thoughtful journey, that has become the perfect soundtrack to my sunday afternoons.. i'm not usually really into chill out, but due to the sound constraints imposed by my flat mate ("can't we have something a little less hectic??" ;) ) i have been discovering it more of late.. and this is right up there with anything i've heard in the genre. some great melodies and soothing atmospheres.. give it a listen :)
 
12 Moons – Solid State
&
Healer – Higher Grounds

Candyflip (Greece)



I owe an apology here to Alexis from Candy Flip – CDs somehow didn’t reach us (a possible symptom of something David Morales, of all people, came up with recently, who always gets nervous flying to London with his records because “everyone in the UK is a DJ†and could nick his tunes.) And it’s a good job we all uncovered this, as psyreviews would have missed out on two damn good albums otherwise. Both Healer and 12 Moons are Gothenburg’s Michael Andressen; the former being his ethereal ambient/chillout guise, the latter being a crystalline, dreamy four-to-the-floor incarnation. And it goes a long way: two albums expertly mastered by Son Kite, and the two together showcase a dazzling and overlooked producer. His 12 Moons project can morph together staggering, escalating sounds into an orgasmic cacophony (Analogue Haste, Small Adventures, Without Within). He can keep one foot in “proper†trance, keeping platipus numpties happy (Ovation), get you feeling like you’re in a Berlin squat party (Flair), and mash it all together leaving you feeling nothing but misty-eyed and rabid (Halo, Pilot). Working better at lower BPM’s, you almost wish he’d stick to what he knows best – once we get up to the mid 140s, there’s a feeling that the tunes are suffocated, and that some more space for them to move would be a fine thing. Balance Solid State out, however, with the Healer album, and you’re laughing. Higher Grounds is nothing short of a masterpiece, a killer collection of tear-to-the-eye, real-music downtempo music. In fairness, “chillout†isn’t really the word – although this would sound neat in any backroom, it really comes into its own when you turn down the lights and crank up the volume: sonic incense for your life, background sounds for an art gallery, or just the soundtrack to shag away the end of whatever drugs you’ve consumed this weekend. Psyreviews tips its metaphorical hat to Mr Andressen, a rare talent in a scene dominated by presets and recycled basslines, and retires once more to enjoy Higher Grounds as the hostility of winter nights taps at the window. Bliss.



7 for Solid State, 9 for Higher Grounds.
 
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