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Michael Brückner — The Seven Planes of Dreams
(Cyclical Dreams cyd-0120, 2024, DL / 2CDr)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-01-26

The Seven Planes of Dreams Cover art

Brückner has been creating electronic music for well over thirty years, and along that path has released over a hundred albums, most only available as downloads and CDr, including collaborations with Mathias Grassow, Volker Lankow, Mathias Brüssel, and others. The Seven Planes of Dreams is  Brückner’s fifth release on the Cyclical Dreams label, and like the title suggests, attempts to describe the nature of dreams in the vernacular of Berlin School electronic music across eight tracks (ten tracks if one goes for the download from Cyclical Dreams’ Bandcamp site, although the two bonus tracks aren’t listed explicitly there). In general the mood is dreamy and ambient with regular flourishes of sequenced beauty, all blessed with the power of mystical shimmer and some magical percussive moments that swirl around the listener while descending through the world of subconscious beyond the scope of awareness. Brückner’s toolkit consists of synthesizers, electronics, programming, and zither, and no doubt an array of software instruments. Perhaps the most impressive piece here is the 22-minute “Floating Towards Oblivion (City of the 7th Plane - Part 2),” a full album side of pure magic wherein the listener can easily get lost for what seems like much longer than t he track’s duration. Think classic early 70s Tangerine Dream and you’ll be halfway there. The zither makes a strong appearance on “A Few Minutes of Inner Peace,” while “Descending to the First Plane” opens the album into a sparkling dreamworld that sets the stage for all that follows. “Memory Surfing” with its heady bottom end and drum track, and “Cloud Formation in the East Central Section (City of the 7th Plane - Part 1)” follow, the latter offering a gentle backdrop for some mysterious spoken words that pull the listener through the next portal. The bonus tracks include “Some Further Minutes of Inner Peace,” a dreamy piece featuring zither and synth, and the seemingly out of place “Moogroovia,” a bouncy number that approaches pop styles while driving an interesting rhythm. All taken, The Seven Planes of Dreams offers much of the magic that the classic era of electronic music has always held.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Michael Brückner

More info
http://cyclicaldreams.bandcamp.com/album/the-seven-planes-of-dreams-cyd-0120

 

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