Ombra - Revisited by Michael Brückner

First, the summary in a nutshell:

Originally, Ombra was recorded in late 2009 / early 2010 an released as a free digital download on the pages of the Moscow based ambient community "AmbiOne" (it's not available there anymore, though).

Now, the album sees a re-release as industrially pressed CD in a limited edition of a total of 100 copies on Hagen von Bergen's label BI-ZA Records.

On this occasion the album was completely remastered, partly remixed, several tracks were even rearranged, or completely reworked.

Together with this CD comes also the original version from 2010, and a wealth of bonus items.

In which form (download or CD-R) the original version is included, and how much bonus content comes with it, depends on which version of this current You choose - there are two...

A. The standard version contains:

1. the (industrially pressed) CD "Ombra - Revisited" as a physical item, in a standard jewel case, with full artwortk; it's a limited edition (100 copies), and in the cover there's a little field for number, name, and a little autograph by me...

2. the original version of "Ombra" (as first released in early 2010) as download

3. a considerable amount of bonus tracks which all come from the sessions which resulted in the original release of Ombra (with one exception)

B. The Special Version contains:

1. the (industrially pressed) CD "Ombra - Revisited" as a physical item, in a standard jewel 2-CD case, with full artwortk, together with...

2. the original version of "Ombra" (as first released in early 2010) as CD-R (so NOT industrially pressed, but still "physical"...)

3. a considerable amount of bonus tracks which all come from the sessions which resulted in the original release of Ombra (with one exception)

4. the * personalised * additional album "Your Second Shadow", as CD-R in a (to 90 %) hand made cardboard "case" (completely designed by me) with artwork, and a (very brief) handwritten personal message from me inside...

But what exactly does "personalised" mean...?

It means, that all the 100 albums are, while basically similar and containing "related" material, DIFFERENT from each other for EACH individual person who is purchasing them...

Finally, the history lesson - this is from an oldish interview, where I spoke about the evolution of the original version of Ombra:

"Already a long while ago, Timothy Bukrin suggested that I could release some of my music at Ambione (Thank You for that, Tim!). I agreed, and decided to produce a new album for this occasion instead of using one of my older recordings.

At that time, I had already started several projects that seemed promising, but for one reason or another they all didn’t develop like expected, or at least not into a direction I felt was suitable.

Then, in the summer of 2009, my wife Cäcilia and me were invited to perform at the wedding party of two old friends, and in addition to composing some tracks for that occasion, I also produced two long tracks (about an hour each), to use them as a sonic background that could be faded in or out while I was performing with the synthesizers.

One of the tracks consisted of long spheric sounds, all playing the note F, while the other was a mix of atonal drones and noises. In both tracks the sound colours were constantly changing, sometimes smooth and slowly, sometimes dramatically.

Now, while developping my live set, it became clear at some point that I would not make use of these background tracks, and I put them on my archive harddisk.

In December 2009 then, while checking unfinished material, I gave the two tracks a re-listen, thought they were interesting and decided to try and produce some extra material (like pads, drone, chords, sequences and beats) that could be mixed against those first tracks in an ebb-and-flow fashion, to get one long, ever-evolving soundscape.

To produce those pads, chords etc. I first invented short phrases, recorded them and fed them to a sampler to toy around with them and process them further. This simple technique yielded so surprisingly good results, that in the end the “pads” evolved into pieces that were complete in themselves, and after doing three of them I realized that this could finally grow into an album that was suitable for my release on Ambione (so I gave the whole project the working title “Ambient Russia”).

In the end, the original long tracks were prominent in just two or three pieces, and in some of the transitions. I liked the resulting album very much, and sent it to some friends to get their feedback, which was positive."

Tracklist

4.	Winter - 2014 version	5:52

8.	Garden - 2014 version	8:41

14.	Beneath A Shadow - 2014 version	6:45

20.	Excursion - original version	8:02

39.	The Shrine (bonus track)	7:38

Credits

released July 20, 2014

License

License varies by track. See the invidual track pages for details.