release date 01 - 09 - 2004

Adventure Music 15

Babylon (2004)

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Some new adventure into the past time. with a mix of percussion and synthesiser music. Meet the music made 1400 years ago, as you hear the Hurrian Hymn ore as you walk in the hanging gardens of Babylon.

Cover design Harmony Sound design.

1 Babylon 2+3 Hurrian Hymn Long Ago Lullaby ,5 Stars 6 Gardens

7 The Coming of the Warriors 8 Kuruwarriors 9 Nuujaq 10 Uzany,s Army 11 Sands of Time 12 The demise of the 3^rd dynasty of Ur

Track1

track 2

track 3

track 4

track 5

track 6

track 7

track 8

track 9

track10

track11

track12

Revieuw by Artemi Pugachov

Sven Hansen is a musician who started composing Electronic Music around 1989. His first project was called Electronic Universe which had two cassette releases, before he switched to his own name and released the well-known album Concerto In Epsilon in 1996. Around 2000 all subsequent works are released under that name.

“Babylon” features sort of a fictious musical story about the ancient city of Babylon. It's rather diverse musically, with melodic and sequenced tracks dominating the picture. One thing to note is the use of percussion on many tracks. The title track ”Babylon “ features exactly that: percussive rhythms and wonderful synth solos.

"Hurrian Hymn" is based on a score that was found on a clay tablet during archeological digs in the place where Babylon was. It dates back to approximately 1400 BC and is the oldest musical score known to humankind. I imagine how difficult it must've been to translate the score to the contemporary scale so that it could be played on todays' instruments. The melody is used with permission.

"Long Ago Lullaby" is very soothing and sounds exactly as the title suggests. Sometimes Sven's music reminds me on Frank Van Bogaert's style - it has a similar sense of thematic development and on this album incorporates some World Music elements, resulting in a melodic kind of stuff that brings some of Frank Van Bogaert's work to mind.

"Stars" features a nice resonating synth background coupled with cricket sounds and some sparse synth notes.

"Gardens" is a relaxed, sequencer-based number and is perhaps the best track on the entire album.

"The Coming of the Warriors" is rather dramatic (also sequencer-based). It's sort of a continuation of the previous track. "Kuruwarriors" is a longer track with some heavier moments.

On the other hand, I just couldn't get into

"Nuujah". The music itself is rather nice but the repeating voice samples I found rather tedious and even annoying. Also the track could've been shorter.

"Uzany's Army" is rather triumphant. It's a nice track.

The last track, called "Sands of Time", finishes this album on a floating, a tad haunting note. There is also a twelfth track annouced on the sleeve that lasts for 7 seconds. It's there, but in fact it consists of just silence. I will take the risk of recommending this album to fans of Frank Van Bogaert. Even if there is some sequencer stuff here, I think they will find the bulk of this album to their liking.

Revieuw by Artemi Pugachov.