Fax+49

Robert Musso is a New York City-based guitarist, composer, engineer, and producer. He is the founder of the independent record label MuWorks. Over the course of a 40 year career, working on any side of the mic, Musso has produced, mixed, re-mixed, played on, written, or otherwise contributed to over 2000 records, CDs, movie soundtracks, etc. on every continent in the world except Antarctica.

The original Ambient Cookbook came out back in 1995, and gave the listener a good cross section of the music available on Fax at the time. There was a mixture of music from not just Namlook, but also from the numerous other artists and collaborators on the label. Now, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the label, the Ambient Cookbook II has been released. Comparisons with the original release are of course inevitable, but in reality this new 4 CD set is something entirely new. Whilst still featuring an excellent selection of music from Fax, the majority of the tracks are by Namlook or Namlook & Collaborators. The only non-Namlook tracks are Atom's "Tuff Transmitter", Inoue's "Magnetic Field" and Jochem Paap's "Dx Synth". Overall, this is a highly recommended release, which would serve as a good introduction to the label…

Sad World I & II is a double CD of strange ambient space music from Dr. Atmo and Ramin. It is on Pete Namlook's Fax label, so the strangeness is not unexpected. Atmo and Ramin build very slow atmospheres from low drones. They weave those atmospheres around and through each other. They insert some outright odd voice samples in the middle of the whole thing. These slowly evolving soundscapes have just enough rhythm and structure to stay just outside of minimalism and just inside weirdness. This is a fun CD and a great listen. It will appeal to fans of Viridian Sun, Vir Unis, Pete Namlook, and Michael Stearns.

The two albums I.F. and I.F. 2 (short for Intergalactic Federation) Deep Space Network made with fellow German artist Dr Atmo for Fax Records feature longer tracks, offering a bigger canvas for Moufang and Grossmann to work on. These are true collaborations with Atmo - a lover of shadowy, cosmic Eastern melodies and percussion - where the whole ends up greater than the sum of the parts.

Pete Namlook was one of the most influential protagonists of ambient music during the 1990s. Inspired by Oskar Sala, one of the pioneers of electronic music, Namlook focused on the untapped potential of analogue synthesizers, often developed or extended in his laboratory.

The most basic compilation for American audiences interested in Pete Namlook's Fax Records is a two-disc set including tracks from Namlook guises Air, the Putney, 4Voice and Shades of Orion. A host of other Fax favorites make appearances: Plastikman's Richie Hawtin on the epic From Within track "Sad Alliance," Deep Space Network and Dr. Atmo on I.F.'s "Kisy Loa," Atom Heart and Tetsu Inoue on their Datacide track "Data Haku." Fax is easily the most traditional-sounding ambient label, and the music would make an equally strong impression on fans of Hearts of Space and Basic Channel.

Shades Of Orion (1993). Tetsu Inoue's second full-length collaboration with Pete Namlook splits evenly between beatless and beat-oriented ambient, with spacey, immersive textures and subtle arrangements. High production values and the wealth of creative territory covered make for one of the finest early Fax releases.
Shades Of Orion 2 (1994). One of the better long-form releases in the Fax stable. This second Shades of Orion project is quite different from the first… a single relaxing, drifty, ethereal piece that will slow your body down and put you to sleep if you need it to. Meditative and very gentle, this recording is free of spoken word samples and sonic distractions, which makes it ideal for just chilling out to.

The first two volumes of the Silence project are credited to Pete Namlook and Dr. Atmo while the following three are by Pete Namlook alone.
Silence (1992) is the one that started it all, Fax's first album release and one which caught the ear of both seasoned electronic boffins and dance fans looking for a chilled-out tonic after a night among the thumping beats of clubland.
Both this album and Silence II (1993) are collaborations with close associate Dr. Atmo and despite being at times almost new age in their choice of themes (a voice whispers sweet cosmic nothings like "we are all part of the universe") the music is outstanding. These beguiling, shimmering, reverberant landscapes are sometimes beatless and sometimes gently beaty with subdued live pads and cymbals…

The first three volumes of the Air series are high-water marks for Pete Namlook. Like the Silence series they show some rich ethnic and neo-classical leanings, and they remain particularly effective examples of how he uses live acoustic instruments in an electronic setting. The delicate, tinkling cymbals and soft tom-tom beats on "Je suis seule et triste ici" from Air I (1993), for instance, are utterly refreshing because Namlook is able to maintain a deep electronic ambient feel while still expanding electronica's instrumental vocabulary.
Air II (1994) is deeply psychedelic. An eleven-part "trip" subtitled "Traveling Without Moving", it takes it's thematic cue from Frank Herbert's cult sci-fi novel and movie Dune…