Sleeper by Bert Strolenberg, E-dition Magazine (2005)

The album “Sleeper” was born from two large floating sessions the Spanish ambient musician Ran Kirlian recorded in the summer of 2003. Both are based on pure improvisation, with some treated field recordings played randomly. Later on, as Kirlian ran over the recordings, he added voice, some additional sounds and grooves to make the music fit in the concept of an evolutionary process on dreams and sleeping. The outcome is an album that is highly atmospheric, but which also features several tribal elements like the claypots which show up in “Other Place” next to his voice. “Sleeper” is a continuous vast textural landscape floating by, able to transport the listener’s mind to a remote places and dense atmospheres. I’m sure fans of Roach and freeform tribal ambient will love this sonic scenery for the mind . Well done.

Bert Strolenberg, now driving Sonic Inmersion

Melting Point review by Bert Strolenberg, E-dition Magazine (2004)

Ran Kirlian is a Spanish ambientmusician who I came across surfing the site of Max Corbacho. Kirlian’s started loving ambient in the begin of the ’90 after he heard Steve Roach’s concept-albums “Western Spaces” and “Desert Solitaire”. In 2000 he started to explore his own musical pathways, and after he discovered Napster he decided to share his music with the outside world. Melting Point (remastered in 2003) offers a 11 tracks of vast ambient atmospheric music, a tasty melting pot of tribal electronics, some dark ambient and a good portion of spacemusic. On the beautiful track “Cave of Forgotten Fires” the Dutch musician Patrick van de Ven plays groove percussion, rainstick and ethnic flutes. Especially the assorted tribal percussion and textural landscaping interact very well on this CD. Its a continuing atmosphere with some sparse minimal elements, heading towards new horizons in time and space. They come close to what Kirlian is trying to establish: creating dense atmospheres which inspire ritualistic environments, cold and desolate spaces and landscapes. Yes, this CD is well done.

Bert Strolenberg,
Main Editor & Journalist E-dition Magazine