Votive, by Chuck van Zyl

Votive

by Chuck van Zyl

supported by

annode The first thing that strikes me is how well it was mixed and rendered. Mr. van Zyl's approach seems to have been to make the earthy electronics sound natural with every note deliberate and well placed in it's course moving through time and space.
Favorite track: Vigil.

majorminor Chuck is creating some of the finest Berlin School soundscapes available today.

eugene51 Great variety & music over the three tracks, but "Where the Woodbine Twineth" is outstanding. Favorite track: Where the Woodbine Twineth.

Steve Horne From the first notes of "The Western Gate", the distinctive style of Chuck van Zyl is evident. Each track of the album tells a story- from the sequenced Berlin Style of "The Western Gate" to the more free-form ambient of "Vigil" and "Where the Woodbine Twineth", this album deserves headphones and the listener's full devotion. Highly recommended! Favorite track: The Western Gate.

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Includes JPEGs of graphics from the CD digipak

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Conventionally manufactured silver compact disc packaged in a six panel digipak showing infrared photos by Chuck van Zyl. Limited to 300.

Includes unlimited streaming of Votive via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 4 days

$14 USD or more

1.	The Western Gate 24:30	info
2.	Vigil 22:50	info
3.	Where the Woodbine Twineth 22:49	info

about

Throughout "Votive", the long-awaited studio album by Chuck van Zyl, he is heard continuously connecting with a profound love of sound. Across its three diverse tracks he realizes an exquisitely detailed Electronic Spacemusic. Each movement comes at you in a trek of tone, a hunt of harmony, a torrent of timbre. Yet, informed listeners will hear unity in the arrangement and the meaningful message it means to convey.

"Votive" ignites with the track "The Western Gate". Building monumental musical structures from layers of mechanized motifs, this star synth-smith signals feelings of certainty, possibility and potential. In the headlong drive of spiraling sequencer runs ratcheting patterns ascend in a striding motor-motion of echoing notes. Settling into a subtle Berlin-School clockwork, questing melodic lines bestow a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.

The composition "Vigil" could not be more different. In a slowly unfolding ambient elsewhere each atonal shape shudders, then falls into place. In stirring sparks and charged currents this extended abstract wandering maintains a pristine musical surface. Negotiating a delicate balance between the questioning and the consoling, a secret sonic life is explored. Resounding in the resonance of memory, here the psychological terrain of the musician may be most truly felt.

"Where the Woodbine Twineth" leads us into a soft cosmos. Spare, but expressively pointed, a substantial atmosphere hovers. Progressing into stretches of luxurious chords and spacey, shimmering accents we encounter a tranquil zone for drifting and thinking. The poetry of its sustaining themes and expressive shades of sound sanction a magical release of thought. With a firm grasp of tonal organization and musical structure, craft, artistry and hidden cognitions are revealed.

Reveling in what he has made, Chuck van Zyl remains sensitive to the promises of the Kosmische Musik genre - and shines brightly within his music. A work such as "Votive" asks the genre to go further, and is an enormous gift to the discipline. Navigating the trackless void of space as thoroughly as it does the inner realm, Votive explores ideas of proportion and scale. As creative energy moves from the artist's interior to that of the audience, in this action both spheres may find their peace, beauty and meaning.

credits

released December 4, 2021

© 2021 Chuck van Zyl
℗ 2021 Synkronos Music, BMI

Tracks 1 & 3 recorded, edited, mixed, produced, mastered by Chuck van Zyl (in 2020-2021)

Track 2 recorded, edited, mixed, produced, mastered by Jeff Towne & Chuck van Zyl (in 2012)

license

about

Chuck van Zyl Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Chuck van Zyl has been at his own unique style of electronic music since 1983. His musical sensibilities evoke a sense of discovery, with each endeavor marking a new frontier of sound.

Recommendations

discography

Gwynedd

Sep 2023
Passages

Aug 2023
Live on Star's End 2021-2022

Mar 2023
Skyspace

Aug 2022
The Winter Wind

May 2022
Votive

Dec 2021
Live on Star's End 10.06.19

Feb 2020
The Relic

Mar 2018
Star's End

Jul 2017
Celestial Mechanics

Jun 2017
The Xyl File

Jan 2017
MemorySpace

Nov 2010

contact / help

Contact Chuck van Zyl

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Report this album or account

Chuck van Zyl recommends:

The Gatherings 21 April 2018
by Chuck van Zyl

Anyone in love with Spacemusic and its very specific poetry will want to hear this concert Chuck van Zyl
go to album
The Gatherings 9 December 2021
by Chuck van Zyl

In early December of 2021 a circle of CIMA of PA donors assembled in the church sanctuary of St Mary's Hamilton Village for an intimate "Candle Concert" Chuck van Zyl
go to album
The Rotunda 4 December 2021
by Chuck van Zyl

"Against the Fall of Night" was played live in the moment before a limited, enthusiastic, informed audience. Proceeds benefit The Rotunda in Philadelphia Chuck van Zyl
go to album

If you like Chuck van Zyl, you may also like:

BERLIN - A Tribute Album for Mark Shreeve
by Various Artists

supported by 48 fans who also own “Votive”

Brilliant album and a worthwhile charity to support. bostonfern73
go to album
Zones, Drones & Atmospheres
by Steve Roach

supported by 44 fans who also own “Votive”

This album will grow on you. Listen in headphones or earbuds. It will blow your mind. Steve has so many amazing textures and dimensions on this release. It's hard to pick a favorite track. Probably in his top 5, if there is such a thing. 53Guitarman
go to album
Singularity (DiN78)
by Node

A majestic yet delicate album from Berlin school-style synth masters Node, recorded in 1994 but unreleased until now. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 21, 2023
go to album