Salvaging the Past

Dean de Benedictis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 13, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Spotted Peccary
• ASIN: B000AOEMZA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,888 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Dean De Benedictus, a highly regarded composer of ambient/space/electronic music from the Los Angeles area, has developed a loyal listening audience over the past several years as electronic/ethno-ambient guru Surface 10.

Product Description

Dean De Benedictus is known for passionately exploiting his interests in a variety of musical styles and concepts. His music is a celebration of age-old artistic attempts to tie the essential common thread between opposing genres and mentalities, as well as draw a natural sense of mystery out of his own work. Venturing into gritty, experimental, and edgy elements of electronic music, Salvaging the Past explores the art of instrumental music with an honesty and integrity that reflects the artist. This is an album that is raw and direct, capturing a vital heart of true electronic music while suggesting more thought-provoking themes. This album contains a powerful mix of chillout/space/ambient electronic textures with outstanding audio quality and packaging

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electronic, not new age. Ambient, not chillout., November 16, 2005

By 

Manny Hernandez "@askmanny" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Salvaging the Past (Audio CD)

I ran into "Salvaging the Past" thanks to the program Echoes, in NPR, that mentioned his name and compared his work to Brian Eno's. While I feel the comparison may be a bit of a stretch, I am happy to have gotten this album, since it makes me feel like I am listening to what Vangelis would have evolved into, had he not gotten stuck doing epic scores.

There's some ethnic bits in this album and there's a certain Jean-Michel Jarre-like feel that always keeps it at a safe distance from turning into a formula-based New Age product, with a foot well into David Darling territory. Recommendable, by all means to all fans of the electronic genre (think Tangerine Dream, Jarre, Vangelis).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Salvaging the Past, February 27, 2006

By 

John C. Dumitru (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Salvaging the Past (Audio CD)

Dean's music comes at your brain like a sneak attack, with intelligence, feints, layers of shapeshifter sounds and coyote attitude that keeps you listening, wondering, "What is next?" Because you do not know, will not know, until after many listenings, the sinuous tracks may get gently worn into your gray matter. This music is a different kind of soundtrack, to Dean's inner movie, and perhaps you can try and make it fit yours too, but it never will completely, as this music is intensely personal, intensely Dean's own. I'm just glad that he makes the great effort to get it just right, and, when he is ready, shares it with the rest of us.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dean De Benedictis "Salvaging the Past", January 14, 2006

By 

Stephen A. Ruby (Oshkosh, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Salvaging the Past (Audio CD)

There is a lot of electronic music these days and it is apparent that either some of it fits (musically), or it doesn't. Dean's latest excursion into the realm of "ambient/sequencer" music takes this listener to the edge of infinity via "Salvaging the Past".
I have a host of releases by Surface 10 (Dean DeBenedictis) but this latest offering by one of L.A.'s most potent producers of modern electronica has a new edge to it not found in most of this type of instrumental meandering, rather, it breathes a new life and takes you on a journey to an expansive openess of vast landscapes, with gentle washes full of electronic color.. The listener will be exposed to Dean's studio prowess, recording technique, and synthetic textures by hearing this latest release, and by no means, skip through this, listen to it in it's entirety to get the full impact of creativity that went into it's development.
I highly recommend this recording for your library, but by no mean's compare this to such legendary composers Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze, it is of itself a fresh set of compositions that go beyond that retro "berlin-school" style of sequencing that everyone seems to base their final result as the only style of E-music ever conceived, it is fresh and it is revealing, like the composer intended.