Dr. Ken Walicki is an American composer and director of the Composition Program at California State University, Fullerton. He is widely recognized and acknowledged for his dramatic and engaging music, often using innovative instrumentation. Walicki was one of the first composers to use turntables in his music. Walicki conveys the effects of globalisation and increasing dependency on technology with Cyberistan. Each piece contains its own environment and its own space. The natural acoustic sounds juxtaposed against man-made sounds of electronic instrumentation supports a dichotomy of two worlds vying for supremacy but inevitably merging into one homogenous identity...

As modern, experimental classical music goes, they don't come much more interesting that Ken Walicki's Cyberistan. It's a feast for the years, in so much as it's full of odd sounds that you probably haven't heard before. Electro acoustic isn't usually my thing (and to be honest this isn't an album I could comfortably listen to for pleasure) but there are so many interesting elements here that it's hard not to get sucked in.

At times it felt a little improvised - I'm not sure whether this is the case or not. The album contains 5 tracks (58 min, 39 sec) and it will certainly add something a little bit different to your music collection.

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Darren Rea