Around the world in a daze!

Up until know we all thought that Ajana was just a town in Western Australia – but now it's also a record label. The chilled downbeat/experimental outlet of Germany's Trishula Records… A record label with an impressive quality level – and now label boss Rudra is getting into downbeat stuff too… Brilliant! Let's begin our journey and hope it becomes as magical as promised…

Let me take you thru the tracks…

#01: Capsula – World Of Information
“Information is primary. This world, this cosmos, this universe, this body and soul, are all made of information. Information is a deeper and more primary concept than space, time, matter, energy, charge, spin, angular momentum. The world is *made* of language…” Capsula is Yosef Shamay from Israel and I was really, really impressed by his trippy track on the Chilling Goddess compilation released on Peak Records earlier this year… This track is very similar… It starts out with a lengthy Terrence McKenna sample – and soon evolves into a dubby, chilled downbeat beast of a track… The rhythm section is very impressive and extremely psychedelic… Oh man, I can't wait for the full Capsula album to be released by Ajana later this year… What a monstrous track to start this journey!

#02: Ovnimoon – Jabarei
Next up is Héctor Stuardo from Chile... That's right – Chile! This is my first encounter with his music, but he's released a handful of tracks on Synergetic Records… The atmosphere in the first part of the track is that of ancient Amazonia… Tribal drums, jungle sounds, flutes, birds and native children's choir… Kinda reminds me of Kaya Project or Aluna… Later on the track takes on a more spacey, yet floating character… Brilliant!

#03: Dejan – Error
Dejan Mihailovic from France is up next... A guy that usually makes hard night-trance, but here's a downbeat detour… Here we're treated to tight percussion, dubby bass and a mixture of industrial and organic pads – beautifully combined, creating a rich sound… Reminds me a little of some of Aes Dana's urban tracks… A tasty, well-polished track…

#04: Derango – An Ancient Tale
Derango are Jens Eriksson & Ola Eriksson – a highly acclaimed mushroom-trance duo from the deepest forests of Sweden… They've released stuff on Stoneage, Trishula, Gi'iwa, Inpsyde and Sanaton Records, and so far I've really enjoyed their highly original sound… And now the first ever Derango downbeat tune! This is deep, mellow ambient from the deep Swedish forests – dubby, lazy beats and phat trippy soundscapes… If there ever was such as thing as shroombient, this is it… And it would have fit perfectly on the chilled Schlabb 006 compilation released by Schlabbaduerst ReKkords last year… Very nice track!

#05: Terra Nine – Axiom (The Omm Squad In Dub Mix)
And now we're really chilling out… Terra Nine/Omm Squad is a bunch of guys from Australia mostly releasing stuff on Green Ant, Deviant Craft and Tempest… I haven't heard the original, so I can't tell you what was changed… Despite its Australasian heritage, this track is more Indian in appearance… Complete with native chanting, long flute lines, and slow dubby beats + ancient sounds… Ethno-ambient to be more precise with a combination of analogue and digital sounds… I could've been without the ‘oh yeah' lyrics halfway through though… But it's still a very soothing track!

#06: Kukan Dub Lagan – Psychedelic Child
Itay Berger from Israel took everyone by surprise last year when Candyflip released his highly original psy-chill-dub debut album Life Is Nice … A highly experimental album I still enjoy for its unique mixture of leftfield/psychedelic sounds… And I'm happy to say this is more in the same vein… The beats are back and as the title suggests this is one of the most psychedelic tracks on the album… It's downbeat dubby goa-trance – if that makes any sense? Similar to ancient Juno Reactor in certain places… Come to think of it, it doesn't make any sense trying to describe Kukan's music… Listen for yourself! Highly original track – sweet!

#07: Cell – Asian Morning
Alexandre Scheffer from France has impressed me with the compilation tracks he's released over the last couple of years… His debut album Phonic Peace was released by Indica Music lately, but I've not yet have the chance to listen to it… Anyway, this track is also a combination of digital and analogue sounds… Kinda tribal and ethnic to begin with, but with an unmistakable digital interface leading the way… A nice floating tune, but somehow I expected even more from Cell…

#08: Electrypnose – Perce Oreille
Swiss producers Vince Le Barde has yet to let me down… He's very skilled both as a dance and chill-out producer… I really liked his debut album Brain Stretching released earlier this year on ResonantEarth.com and his track on Chilling Goddess was cool! .. This is floating, melodic chill-out beautifully executed by this sonic sound sorcerer… Sweet track!

#09: Psyfactor – REaliens
Psyfactor is Dmitry Korablin from Russia who's releasing his debut album Evil Inside on Trishula Records simultaneously with this compilation… And actually this is a little scary too… Halloween ambient? Concept-wise this kinda reminds me of the Digital Talk track Party People which was also kinda dark, despite the low BPM count… Music-wise this is a little lighter though, but still has alien influences as the title suggests… Good, but not great… The album is better!

#10: Capsula – Crown Ethers
Yosef Shamay comes back to close the show… And wow what a way to end this… Just like the Kukan track, this is a highly experimental, downbeat tune… Bits of dub, tribal, electro and acid are sprinkled around to enhance the listening experience… And it works wonders… The ending is something else – just wait and listen… Sweet little tune to finish things off… ;o)

The journey is over… And though it was a little bumpy, it was very enjoyable… Creating the perfect flow is always a difficult task when compiling tracks from different artists… And I can't say that Ajana succeeded 100% in that – the flow is a little off at certain places here…I would have rearranged the tracks to ensure an even tighter flow, but that's really the only point of criticism I have for this compilation… I'm actually pretty impressed!

The quality level is very, very high… Much higher than I had expected… There is an abundance of great tracks and even the less-great tracks are pretty good… The cover art fits the music, and all in all this chill compilation is a real winner… Well done Ajana! I'm eagerly looking forward to the Frechbax and Capsula debut albums… In the meantime I will not hesitate to recommend this album to fans of experimental chill-out and dubby ambient… Enjoy!

Favourites: 1(!!), 2, 4, 6, 8, 10

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