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Galactic Travels™ Monthly Special Focus Log - 2023


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The Special Focus for January was
B. ASHRA
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B. Ashra has been producing electronic music for 30 years. Based in Berlin, B. Ashra's music ranges from meditative ambient music to sound experiments and acid techno. Since this sometimes led to confusion, B. Ashra releases only ambient, downbeat and experimental music since the beginning of the 2000s. As Robert Templa, he releases techno/electro and as Hackbert, he releases tech-house, glitches, very experimental, and harder sounds.

B. Ashra has made a name for himself in the international electronic music scene with numerous live concerts in many clubs and at open air festivals. He is active in other band projects such as Cosmic Octave Orchestra, 70db, Brain Entertainment Laboratory, Morphon, Tohil Mons and Psychotikum.

He has worked with many internationally renowned musicians on a wide variety of projects including Youth (Killing Joke, The Fireman, The Orb), Steve Schroyder (Star Sound Orchestra, Tangerine Dream), Dr. Walker (Air Liquid), Cem Oral aka Jammin Unit (Air Liquid), Matt Black (Coldcut), Peter Missing, Wolfram Spyra, Rainer Von Vielen, Oriom, Eru, Ricky Deadking, Mijk Van Dijk, Cosmic Baby, Sheldon Drake, Carsten Thorwald, Daniel Katzenstab, Ümit Han, Steve Baltes, Bob Humit, Der Dritte Raum, Thomas D, Sigyn M, A.R. Funkhauser, Jewel, MoTom, Rachel Sacks, and McMurphy.

He has also organized a number of ambient events in Berlin, including the legendary Ricochet Gathering 2010 in Schönberger Rathaus Berlin with the help of Steve Schroyder, Bernd Kistenmacher, and Ute Herriger.

In addition to being a musician, he is a sound designer and mastering engineer at his Berlin recording studio GL Audio and manages two record labels; Separated Beats and Klangwirkstoff Records.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
Date Album Label
01/05 Atomic World Separated Beats
01/12 Venus Meditation Klangwirkstoff
01/19 The Sound of DMT Klangwirkstoff
01/26 Fluffy Spirals Separated Beats
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for January
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for February was
FILTER-KAFFEE
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FILTER-KAFFEE are Frank Rothe and Mario Schönwälder from Berlin. Since 2007, they have been working together on analogue and hybrid synthesizers, sequencers and other sound devices. They have performed many concerts in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. They name their albums after the old size specifications for coffee filters of a well-known German company. The specifications changed in 1960. Filter-Kaffee have been included on a number of compilations.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
All releases are on Manikin Records.
Date Album
02/02 100
02/09 101
02/16 102
02/23 105
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for February
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for March was
DEBORAH MARTIN
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Deborah Martin's passion is to visualize and create music that takes each listener on a journey through time and space. With her vivid imagination and a deep love of historic places and peoples of the past, she brings those people and places into the present and into our hearts.

Deborah has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the North American continent, experiencing firsthand the diversity of cultures and the historic threads that weave together connecting us all. This perspective enables her to recognize and uncover links between present and past, and to interpret the resulting panorama with a compositional style all her own.

Whether collaborating with other artists or working on her own projects in the future, Deborah Martin, one of Spotted Peccary Music's highly acclaimed top selling artists is sure to inspire listeners with visions of the past and present. When the time comes for her to reveal the next installment of her musical saga, it is certain that it will be one for the ages.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
All releases are on Spotted Peccary.
Date Album
03/02 Under the Moon
03/09 Convergence
03/16 Tibet
03/23 Deep Roots, Hidden Water
03/30 Eye of the Wizard
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for March
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for April was
STEVE ROACH
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Steve Roach is a leading American pioneer in the evolution of ambient and electronic music, helping shape it into what it is today. Grammy nominated in 2018 and 2019, his career spans four decades and nearly 150 releases. His massive catalog of landmark recordings includes Structures from Silence, Dreamtime Return, and Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces. Drawing from a vast, unique, and deeply personal authenticity, his albums are fueled by the momentum of a lifetime dedicated to the soundcurrent. Roach is an artist operating at the pinnacle of his art form, driven by a passion and unbroken focus enhancing the emotive, soul-stirring depth of his music.

From the expansive, time-suspending spaces reflecting his spiritual home in Arizona to the fire breathing, sequencer-driven rhythmic-tribal expressions woven from all things electric and organic, this innovative world of sound has been nourished by years of transcendent concerts worldwide. Always reaching towards what's next on the horizon, Roach refuses to be tied down to any one stylistic direction. Capturing peak moments as they occur in his Timeroom studio, he creates a sonic experience that breathes emotion and vital life energy that connects to an ever-growing worldwide audience.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
All releases are on Timeroom Editions.
Date Album
04/06 Electron Birth
04/13 Invisible
04/20 Ambient Church disk 1
04/27 Ambient Church disk 2
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for April
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for May was
MICHAEL BRÜCKNER
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Michael Brückner produces electronic music in a wide variety of styles, concentrating on ambient and drone. A self-managing artist, he has created more than 120 albums since 1992, most of which can be ordered directly from him or via his Bandcamp page.

Since 2012, a number of his albums have been released by independent labels such as SynGate, Klangwirkstoff, Aural Films, BI-ZA Records, and Winter-Light. He has also performed in a number of European electronic music festivals.

Michael is also involved in collaborations with other artists like Detlev Everling, Alien Nature, Mathias Brüssel, Cousin Silas, Mathias Grassow, Rebekkah Hilgraves, Harald Bertram, and Lutz Thuns. His collaborations include several long term projects: B4 SUNRISE, La Mansarde Hérmetique, Betzler and Brückner, and Bridge To Imla.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
Date Album Label
05/04 Trees of Olivandá SynGate
05/11 The Crossing of Zone 3 SynGate
05/18 Recycled Life disk 1 Cyclical Dreams
05/25 Recycled Life disk 2 Cyclical Dreams
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for May
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for June was
PALANCAR
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Darrell has collaborated with Cluster Balm, Copal River, Labrathisattva, Flute of the Fallen Tiger, and Lucette Bourdin. He has played live quite a bit under the Palancar project as well as part of the mindSpiral and Different Skies projects.

Darrell is the founder of the Creative Commons based ambient net label Earth Mantra and of Spirit Canyon Audio, a vendor of exotic music soundware. Darrell founded the internet radio station StillStream which still operates today 24/7.

Most of Darrel's music is available as free downloads under Creative Commons. He also hosts Blue Water Drift Dive on RadioSpiral.

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Palancar has been a Special Focus on Galactic Travels™ before:
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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
All releases are on Emergent World Records.
Date Album
06/01 Scarab disk 1
06/08 Scarab disk 2
06/15 Scarab disk 3
06/22 Grooves
06/29 Nightlands
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for June
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for July was
CRAIG PADILLA
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Craig Padilla is an internationally celebrated and award-winning electronic music artist and video producer. After more than two decades of performing live and recording his own music using many vintage analog and newer digital synthesizers, his style reflects the classic electronic musicians of the past, while finding new sound and music styles that are unique to the true ambient electronic music genre (often found in categories from New Age to Trance to Electronica).

His music and creative environment is inspired and influenced by the lands surrounding Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where he once resided, and by his earliest influences of being raised in far-northern California where he resides again, where he first explored the works of Wendy Carlos, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Steve Roach, and many other pioneers of the electronic form.

Never letting technology overcome the humanity in his compositions, he creates electronic music that is rooted in tradition while still sounding new, interesting, and fresh.

Craig has always endeavored to paint musical landscapes with a rich palette of infinite timbral complexity, guaranteeing to take the audience to a different place on each listen, making every disc a recording that is a highly sculpted, crafted musical experience to be treasured and played indefinitely.

He has composed soundtracks for various television, theatrical, and film productions. His music is heard on XM Satellite Radio and radio stations throughout the US, and on celebrated radio programs Echoes and Hearts of Space repeatedly. He is a top-selling established artist on the Spotted Peccary Music label and has appeared on releases on the Lotuspike, Fruits de Mer Records, Groove Records, Space for Music, Monroe Institute Hemi-Sync, and Ultimae labels.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
All releases are on See Peace Music.
Date Album
07/06 The Heart of the Galaxy
07/13 Patterns of Thought
07/20 Perspectives on the Dream World
07/27 Aquarii
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for July
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for August was
FARIA RECORDS™
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Faria Records™ is a music publishing house in St. Petersburg, Russia, specializing in ambient music and traditional electronics. It was founded in 2004 by Andrei Sadovnikov (Faryus) who left in 2009. The label is managed by Ian Gorboun who heads seven radio stations as of this writing, SECTOR Broadcasting™ (SPB). Andrei met Ian at SPB in 1996 when Andrei hosted a radio program called "Fantasmogoriya."

The label's catalog includes works by such famous musicians such as Alio Die, Oophoi, Mathias Grassow, Bad Sector, Robert Rich, Exalot, and others.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
All releases are on Faria Records™.
Date Artist Album
08/03 Faryus Lucid Dreams
08/10 Faryus and Vadim Bondarenko 8 Atmospheres
08/17 Faryus Night Forest Reality
08/24 Robert Rich and Faryus Zerkalo
08/31 Mac Mavis Report from the Lake
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for August
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for September was
SVERRE KNUT JOHANSEN
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Sverre Knut Johansen was born in 1960 and is from Mo i Rana, Norway. Sverre's first electronic album in 1994 and was produced by Erik Wøllo on the Norwegian label Origo Sound. In 1999, he released The Source of Energy, followed by Planets in 2012. Sverre began distributing his music in 2013 on his own Origin Music label for download and streaming.

The music of Sverre has always had rich content and strong melodic elements that have become his trademark. Symphonic electronic music dominated the first releases but his more recent releases vary widely in style, as Sverre makes music that is both lyrical and rhythmic and often with elements of classical and electronic ambient music genres.

Sverre is inspired by Norwegian artists Hvítur Hestur and Different Directions from the electronic jazz world. Sverre's releases Nightshift and Elements of Light were inspired by the work of Steve Roach.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
All releases are on Spotted Peccary Music.
Date Artist Album
09/07 solo Earth from Above
09/14 solo Secret Space Program
09/21 with Robert Rich Precambrian
09/28 solo Dreams Beyond
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for September
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for October is
OÖPHOI
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Oöphoi was Gianluigi Gasparetti (1958-2013), an Italian ambient composer.

He was perhaps best known for his role as the editor of Deep Listenings, an Italian magazine dedicated to ambient and deep atmospheric music, where he featured interviews with many famous ambient artists including Steve Roach and Michael Stearns. Oöphoi's music can be characterized as being static, organic and minimalistic. It has an overall solid and monolithic feel to it, often integrated in a meditative and spiritual context. Created by using synths, singing bowls, flutes, and processed voices, his recordings have relatively slight harmonic variations.

An avid music collector since his childhood, Gianluigi started his own music experiments in 1995 with a basic instrumentation, trying to explore the shores of deep space-ambient. His first album "Three Lights at the End of the World," composed in 1995, was released in 1996 by Italian ambient artist Alio Die's label, Hic Sunt Leones.

Oöphoi used traditional instruments as synths and sampling machines, but also singing bowls, flutes, percussion (woodchimes, stones, shells, crystal chimes) and processed voices; all his music is recorded using analog-only devices in his studio The Kiva which used to be a stall in a 15th century stone country house in the hills of central Italy.

Gianluigi Gasparetti passed away in 2013 after a long illness.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
Date Album Colaborator Label
10/05 Athlit solo Hypnos
10/12 Bardo solo Electro Shock
10/19 The Martian Chronicles Seren Ffordd Hypnos
10/26 Distance to Zero Paul Vnuk Jr. Hypnos
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for October
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for November is
AIRSCULPTURE
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AirSculpture are an electronic music group based in the UK. Its members, Adrian Beasley, John Christian, and Peter Ruczynski, established it in the mid 1990s as a reaction to a music scene that no longer reflected their tastes. The energy and edge of '70s EM had become diluted into a monoculture of clinical digital sounds usually played over safe pre-recorded backing.

Most of AirSculpture's music is created live on stage, improvised with little or no pre-planning. Their music has evolved to a unique sound melding driving Berlin School rhythms with engaging, flowing melodies, sometimes moving into darker ambient realms or shifting gear with danceable beats.

The band has released more than a dozen full length albums. The majority are live recordings reflecting the live nature of the music. There have also been numerous tracks released on compilation albums.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
Date Album Label
11/02 Burn self released
11/09 Under the Moon Ricochet Dream
11/16 Vanishing Point volume one self released
11/23 Vanishing Point volume two disk 1 self released
11/30 Vanishing Point volume two disk 2 self released
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for November
Link to this month's Top 20

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The Special Focus for December was
ROBERT SCOTT THOMPSON
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Robert Scott Thompson works in the ambient, electroacoustic, contemporary instrumental, pop, and avant-garde genres. He is Professor of Music Composition at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Dr. Thompson is also Director of the Center for Audio Recording Arts (CARA). He runs the Aucourant Records label which has released selections of his work in a wide range of styles.

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Featured CD at Midnight by Week
Date Album Label
12/07 Green Flash and the Dryline Chaser Aucouramt
12/14 Pluviophilia - Pallaethesia Aatma
12/21 Pluviophilia - Pluviophilia Aatma
12/28 Pluviophilia - Cartographies of Time Aatma
Here is the Top 20 Monthly Report for December
Link to this month's Top 20

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Galactic Travels™ is designed to bring WDIY listeners hour-long soundscapes of electronic, ambient, and space music.
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Galactic Travels™ is designed to bring WDIY listeners hour-long soundscapes of electronic, ambient, and space music.
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