Customer Reviews

Desideratum

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the better CDs I own...this is for a person whom really gets into to music. If your just starting out stick with the more conventional CDs..This music is designed for headphones and long auto rides by yourself..Not to invite friends over to "check it out" This CD is very good for introspection...

Band's second release,key players for this studio project are Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber.Two CD's,duration is two hours and twenty minutes.Best described as industrial/electronic with a somewhat 'sinister' edge to it.As a friend of mine put it,'Desideratum' is borderline tolerable.As for myself,I prefer to listen to one disc per time I choose to check it out.Tracks that I most remember noticing were "Orion Nebula","Dark Core","Barred Spirals" and the fifteen-minute "Lifeless".Might appeal to fans of Front Line Assembly,Delerium,Surface 10,Philip Glass and Red Shift.

Upon first listen, this album fell into my "good" categorie. The second time I listened to it, previously unnoticed nuances begin to shine through, bringing this album up to "pretty good". After the third listen, it moved to the "excellent" category. Make no mistake, this is a totally "ambient" type album, not really something you can dance too! It's also very dark and very haunting. I found it perfect to lose one's self in it; lush musical textures over lush musical textures. "Umbra", "Dark Core" and "Lumia" are incredible! Recommended for a great escape!

Disc one starts out with an awesome light techno/electronica song. It's very uplifting, fast, and the best track on this album. Listening to it now as I am writing this, and I can't help mut move slightly with the beats. Ahhh! This set is almost worth to buy just for this first song alone. The disc then proceeds to much slower, ambient songs. Track 3 is also pretty cool. It has more of a beat to it than the other tracks, and it's easy to groove to, although it is still pretty slow. The rest of the tracks are good, having some melody and rhythm, not being pure ambient, but they still retain slow feels, overall pretty good. I wish Synaesthesia would have kept to the beats of track one, as it carries this album, but they were probably going for a soft ambient feel rather than pumping techno. Without it, I probably wouldn't have given 3 stars.

Disc two is very, very dark. It is very slow, the complete definition of ambient music. Not much beats or rhythm to it, but it is very interesting to listen too. But, like Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2, you have to be in the right mood to listen to it. I have probably listened to the first disc ten times more than the second disc, as it just doesn't effect me as the first disc, let alone the first song. If you're into dark, deep ambient, then this would be good for you, but it isn't too great in my opinion.

Beautiful songs and sounds. Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber of Frontline Assembly are amazing musicians.
The first 3 songs on the 1st disk are my favorite. They are perfect to listen to when reading a good book, or when your chilling out or looking at the stars or something like that.
Another reviewer said that this album is for when your by yourself, I could'nt agree more. Its not a party album or a dancey album or anything like that, its more of a Tangerine Dream style album. This album will put you in a relaxed trance, and it will make you think, and then think some more.
If you like Delerium, Frontline Assembly, Will, Intermix, Equinox or any of Leebs projects you'll really enjoy this album.Its very cool.

As a fan of Delerium and multiple other Leeb/Fulber/Peterson projects, I thought I'd check out Synaesthesia. I had heard Ephemeral was a much better album, but Desideratum was the only album I could find in stores. When I first popped this into my CD player, I was very impressed with the first song, "Andromeda." It was upbeat and very cool, like newer Delerium and Front Line Assembly and Pro Tech, but I was quite disappointed by all the songs that followed. They are too long for lacking in material. They're actually not bad songs for dark, ambient stuff like old Delerium, and would be good to fall asleep to, but I can't help but feel teased by the first song.

If you enjoy dark goth ambient stuff, I'd recommend old Delerium or Synaesthesia's Ephemeral (which I now have) over this.

If you like a little more upbeat but still moody electronica, I'd recommend newer Delerium, Front Line Assembly, or Pro Tech.

While I have a rather eclectic taste in music, I prefer music which has the effect of seemingly transporting me to another world; music which can affect, or alter, my mood. Ambiance is generally easier to do this with, since one does not get hung up on the words, or repetitive sounds designed to accommodate words.

That said, while listening to this album at the office (which is very dimly lit, as we are programmers and shun the light) I had safely slipped away while working, until a certain song caused a tiny twinge that made me realize where I was, and then struggle to try to figure out what was real, and what was not; for a few moments, I was not sure I could not fly. That song, on disc 2, was aptly titled "Hallucinations."

This album has been an absolute joy to work to, as I'd been enjoying more relaxed music but had grown tired of chillout.

Some other interesting instrumental and/or mood-altering music: Fyuti, Prima Materia, Airdrawndagger.

Bill Leeb is one busy guy and he sure has recorded his share of records over the years. This 1995 is a strange mix between all his side projects and FLA. One could say that there is some noise unit, a bit of FLA, delerium and intermix and a tad of pro-tech. It is great bargain as one gets 140 minutes worth of music for a very reasonable price. The cover art is quite odd and does not seem to fit with this genre of music. It looks more like a cover for a hippie band in the 60's with its flowers and the strange statues on the back. The inside is a joke and there is no information on anything at all. The music is written by R. Deckard and I really have no idea whom that is but it is very nice and I like the sound and texture to this album.

There really isn't any other way of looking at it. You've got over 140 minutes of pure dark music. I read that this was supposedly " satanic " but on listening to this I just thought it was similar to Tangerine Dream's Zeit which was another kinda drone album done with synths. No doubt, the first track would kinda lull you into a sort of false sense of security giving that it sounds almost kinda happy. But after track 2 the album really begins. I wouldn't play the 2 CDs back to back because then it would get rather monotonous. And of course by all means, don't play this if anyone else is in the room - they might get a bit annoyed or freaked out!

I found this in a second hand store when I was in Germany and me and my friend made a joke about the name of the tracks and just started to nickname them " The DNA Barcoders." Another friend though of hers couldn't see why we found the tracks a joke because she found it scary ( as well as the music ) so it just goes to show you - play this by yourself!

I love this album. I was driving in my car with a friend of mine while this was playing and he hates it. He calls it wax museum music. I sharply corrected him telling him it was actually Faces of Death music. Enjoy.