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Sound Anomaly |
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This is the official unofficial Sound Anomaly Fan Club Web Site. Enjoy!
For those few of you who don't know what they are: Sound Anomaly is a Dutch group of musicians that exclusively use electronic instruments. The style is hard to describe. Some may call it "New Wave". It could be compared to Vangelis or Kitaro. But it's really a style in its own.
Unfortunately, still very few shops carry the Sound Anomaly albums. To get one of these collectors items, you will have to contact one of the members and beg for a copy. E-mail addresses are here.
The Anomaly album First Contact appeared in 1996.
You can still see much of the background of the members.
And it's more like individuals doing something together than a group effort.
The title "First Contact" is appropriate.
The first tracks were mostly made by Eric, with percussion added by Gert
afterwards.
The last few tracks were just some tracks that they had lying around, to fill
up the CD.
The most interesting is "RSFSR", which sets the direction for their later
work.
Chris didn't do much for this album, he apparently was only involved in track
six.
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The second album World Vibes was released in 1998. This is their break-through! A great number of different sounds are used to create a new world of vibes. The whole album is showing the quality of their members. It is much more balanced than "First Contact". Put your CD player on repeat, you will discover new elements every time you hear the tracks.
The samples below give you some idea of the Sound Anomaly sound. They are in MP3 format and were made by Eric.
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The third album Nano Creatures was released in March 2001. After listening to World Vibes, the first three tracks on this album will surprise you. The Music goes into the direction of Tangerine Dream. Tracks three, four and six are more like the sound that made Sound Anomaly stand out from the rest. Track five has a different kind of sound, because of the use of a Didgeridoo. All over, this album is again one with a large variety of sounds.
Try playing this album with Dolby-surround decoding. The vibes will fill your room!
You can see that the artwork for this album has been done very well. If you manage to get hold of the CD, you'll see that the back cover also looks great. There is a booklet with some remarks about the story behind Nano Creatures.
The samples below give you some idea of this album. They are in RealAudio format and were made by Eric.
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The fourth album Xmopolitan was released in December 2002. Again Sound Anomaly managed to make an album with quite a different sound. Each of the used "instruments" sounds very well worked out. And they are mixed in a balanced way, the percussion never becomes dominating.
What makes this album special? Mostly the sound clips. I would guess they come from movies or TV series. This gives a different atmosphere to each of the tracks. It already starts in the first one, Entrée, with a truck driving by. "Time to die" sounds very mysterious, matching the title. The voice is Rutger Hauer in the SF movie "Blade Runner". This track could very well be used for a horror movie. "Fog" is apparently based on a late night "action" movie. I wonder what Eric was thinking of while composing this one! He claims he never met the girl (sure, sure :-). Other samples are from "Once upon a time in the west" and from a ZDF sound sample CD.
Sound Anomaly deserves a reward for coming up with great track titles! That's not easy for instrumental music.
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| Eric van Gasteren | <gasteren AT cistron.nl> |
| Gert Voets (First Contact and World Vibes) | <voet AT oce.nl> |
| Christiaan "speed" van Lierop (World Vibes and Nano Creatures) | <c.vanlierop AT chello.nl> |