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- 2008 -

Review of 'Blue Narrations' - December 18, 2008
I am really enjoying stuff from en:peg digital not only because they have decent selection of music but every release is a mere 2 bucks so I can really listen to new artists without feeling like I made a bad purchase. "Off Land" is no exception to their catalog of artists. The first track "Fog" really sets the tone. (This is, by far, the best track on the album). He utilizes a lot of the organic feel of artists like "Biosphere", yet he still spends time with melody and let the sound of their synths actually stay sounding like synths (like early "Ambient Instinct" artists). The second track "Contrails"'s main pad has almost a soft horn quality to it without sounding too cheesy. In the background, throughout the album, you can hear ambient nature noises such as birds. Let me just say that I really don't know what to feel about sounds of birds in the background of ambient music... maybe slightly a little too cliche for my tastes. The third track "Kites" has a very 80s sci-fi synth feel to it (with more birds in the background (I don't get what a sci-fi feel and bird sounds have in common)!!!). This album is a nice listen for those who really love the late 80s to mid 90s electric ambient artists such as "Human Mesh Dance" and "Global Communication". With that said, don't expect anything to innovative or mind blowing. The artist also need to focus more on his main theme... the nature sounds with the cold synthy feel (albeit nice and relaxing) does not go together thematically very well. In my opinion; if the artists wanted an ambient backdrop noise to fill up the space... they could have chose maybe some nice noise generated rhythms like other artists are doing to fill that void and keep the overall tone the same. It has all the characteristics to make it a good ambient album (and mostly, it is), but the varying ambient textures fight against eachother and make it slightly distracting (which goes against Eno's criteria for ambient music (non distracting)). ~David K Roberts (Ambient Library)
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Review of 'Grey Surfaces' - December 13, 2008
This is pretty good. Off Land (an Eno-esque pun?) is a chap called Tim Dwyer from Belmont, Massachusetts. Grey Surfaces is a set of glacial, ambient tracks which are infused with hazy melody, and augmented by various field recordings. The pace is leisurely, but the mood ranges from the laid back pastoralism of “Information Stencil” to the brooding menace of “Slow Blow”. What beats there are, are low key and mixed down. “Trapezoid” starts with birdsong and dark drones and builds gradually with swirling organ loops. It sounds very much like pre-Virgin era Tangerine Dream. The five original compositions are augmented by a couple of remixes. Placement’s rejig of “Slow Blow” doesn’t add much to the original, but Ennio Mazzon’s excellent glitchy rework of “Input Shape” strips the track down into a fizz of microtones, high frequency hiss and quiet distortion. Grey Surfaces is well worth a listen. ~DEZ (Music Musings and Miscellany)
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Review of 'Encounter Point' - 5 out of 5 stars - April 5, 2008
This is an ambient music album about which every one will agree. Ample, lingering, revealing new possibilities at each listening, "Encounter Point" asserts itself as one of the great moments of the genre in 2008. Where many would exhaust their listeners with the length (nearly 77 minutes of music), Off Land keeps us breathless from start to finish, easing the cramps in a musical style which is otherwise rather minimalist. With piano, drones, guitar, field recordings, Off Land constructs a little symphony charged with emotion, abstract and delicate, with the long and delicate "Colloquy" as coda. Savor it without moderation.. ~Netlabels Revue
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Review of 'Encounter Point' - March 24, 2008
After several listens through the eight tracks on Encounter Point by Off Land (aka Tim Dwyer), set your MP3 player to a minute or so prior to the end of the album’s final track. There will have been several listens already, because this mix of quiet soundscapes and occasional bits of guitar and spoken soundbites is a carefully constructed collection that invites repetition. For example, the earlier “Trail” opens like a duet for piano and distant helicopter, before invoking a nodding little beat and some water-drop percussives. And “Colloquy” uses tantalizingly plucked strings to invoke a kind of pixel plectrum, while on “Evident” the more traditional strumming brings to mind Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. That final track is titled “Places” and if you do opt to jump in midway, you’ll be surprised as the background percussion and swelling orchestration rolls through like the score to some summer blockbuster — moments earlier, weren’t piano keys playing against singsong tones? The inherent surprise is evidence of Dwyer’s talent: For all the seeming ease of Encounter Point, it’s actually a fairly tumultuous affair — there’s a lot lurking beneath its sedate surface. ~Marc Weidenbaum
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Review of 'Encounter Point' - March 21, 2008
One additional excellent ambient work from one of most rapidly-growing net-labels of this year. Very careful, quiet and delicate electro-acoustics. ~Hear/Think
-link (in Russian)