another fantastic release from uwe.. Austere yet engaging, a little more avant garde with some of the beats but I think that's a trend not unique to arovane. Artists have to mature somehow, they can't just rehash the same thing over and over that's boring. there's some good warm ambient here too but overall it is a b it "harder" than atol scrap. That's ok it's not for sleeping.

Buying Atol Scrap was one of those impulse purchases that introduced me to this wonderful music that I could listen to over and over again and appreciate it more each time.

So when Arovane came out with another album, buying it was a no brainer, or so I thought. This music is so different from and inferior to Atol Scrap that I'm having a hard time listening to the album for the first time, without wanting to change the cd. It is all so blah, like elevator music.

So, chances are if you liked Atol Scrap, and you want more of the same, this is not it, don't waste your money.

I count this alongside Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief" as the two best recordings I have purchased in the last five years. I LOVE Arovane, and this CD to me is his pinnacle performance. Atol Scrap is good too, but "Instant Gods Out of the Box" has to be one of my favorite electronic tracks ever. I highly recommend this record. I've heard people say that this is what Autechre should have ended up like...
If you like this, check out Múm. Good stuff.

I'm more of a fan of Arovane's highly synthetic and beautifully fragile Icol Diston and Atol Scrap sound than the more organically pretty Tides and Lilies sound, although there is a touch of the former on this album. There are some decent tracks here but I'm ultimately a little disappointed by this effort, which is more pretty than it is artful. And man, I know it's a common and perhaps petty complaint, but where's the rest of the album? Some EPs are longer than this.

I want more art, Uwe.

Slow melodies and a smattering of Japanese samples gives this idm-type of electronic music an ornate and lush feeling. Its like the instantaneous, present moment of a blossom falling in the middle of an urban park. I only wish the album were a bit longer.