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ALBUM RELEASE: Espers by 12 Followers/Meteo Xavier


Meteo Xavier
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I've written a mini-review of this album on my website, but I want to talk about it here as well.

When Meteo first contacted me about this project, my expectations were pretty low. A lot of people have asked me to do mastering work and a lot of the music is nowhere near the quality of your average OC ReMixer, much less that of major artists or composers. However, when I sat down and actually listened to the entire album, I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. Every track struck a chord with me and had some kind of emotional resonance. Meteo described the music as being designed to take you to a different world, and that's what it did for me.

This isn't something I say lightly, either. As I mentioned, I've worked on a lot of music for other people and most of it is uninspired, or technically proficient but without any real 'heart' or artistry. In fact, it's reminiscent of BT's "This Binary Universe" in that it's constantly evolving and just as much rooted in sound design as it is in melodies and harmony, but I would even say that Espers is more listenable, despite my great reverence for TBU.

For $5.99, I really can't recommend this album enough.

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You've got some music on this album that is very reminiscent of some of my favorite new age composers, like David & Diane Arkenstone, Ray Lynch, and Vangelis. Loving it!

EDIT: You, sir, have a sale. Glad to see you have this on iTunes!

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You've got some music on this album that is very reminiscent of some of my favorite new age composers, like David & Diane Arkenstone, Ray Lynch, and Vangelis. Loving it!

EDIT: You, sir, have a sale. Glad to see you have this on iTunes!

I remember studying a lot of David Arkenstone about this time last year when I was starting to build ideas of what I wanted to actually do and how popular New Age music sounds. Vangelis I also listened to a lot for this Berlin School style track I was trying to do but cut in favor of Track 7.

Thanks man!

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  • 1 year later...

I was guided here through your other album release (Metocrity Vol. 1) and from just checking out your music overall.

Man, I'm glad I did.

"Espers" is right up my alley. I just purchased after previewing it on Facebook. If I was forced to describe this album in one word, it would be: rich. It contains such INVOLVING and EVOLVING textures and your passion shows through the intricacy. It's one of those very few places you don't mind getting lost in.

The hurdles you crossed to make this album are truly inspiring as well. Thanks.

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I was listening to this album when I was browsing OCR and lo and behold it appears revived from community discussion. This is some truly unique and amazing stuff and I'm somewhat ashamed I put off buying it for so long.

There was a comment earlier in this thread about the titles of each track (namely, long and weird). I'm just curious as to why each individual track was named as it was (seeing as I'll be doing reviews of each track shortly). What in your mind personally connected the titles to the tracks?

Anyway, great stuff. It's hard to find this kind of unique awesomeness in the music that I listen to.

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I didn't know topics this old could be resurrected. :)

There was a comment earlier in this thread about the titles of each track (namely, long and weird). I'm just curious as to why each individual track was named as it was (seeing as I'll be doing reviews of each track shortly). What in your mind personally connected the titles to the tracks?

There are a lot of pretentious ways I could answer this question - but the real reason is I just wanted them to stand out as much as possible. Usually for New Age, Ambient albums they have boring song titles like "Quiet Reflection", "Solitude", and that's fine for their medium but it wouldn't work here. It's also something I picked up from hours and hours of listening to Motoi Sakuraba - his song titles are ridiculous.

I should probably update the first post to include links to the physical CD now. Thank you those who are joining my Facebook and reviving topics like this - it makes this work extremely worthwhile!

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There are a lot of pretentious ways I could answer this question - but the real reason is I just wanted them to stand out as much as possible. Usually for New Age, Ambient albums they have boring song titles like "Quiet Reflection", "Solitude", and that's fine for their medium but it wouldn't work here. It's also something I picked up from hours and hours of listening to Motoi Sakuraba - his song titles are ridiculous.

I do love the titles, it certainly worked alright with the type of music. Definitely a memorable album in just about every way.

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  • 9 months later...

A Rather Pleasant Site is proud to present our first ever podcast. Clocking in at 1 hour, 33 minutes, and 50 seconds, over half of this podcast is devoted to showcasing Espers (55 minutes and 34 seconds to be exact). The section of the podcast that's about Espers starts at 25:35 and runs until 1:21:09. This release also corresponds with a series of posts on A Rather Pleasant Site (which is currently being run through a blog) that breakdown every moment of every track in Espers in excruciating detail. We also plan on featuring Meteocrity within the next few months and because it's such a large subject, Meteo Xavier is deserving of his own tag on our blog. Please let us know what you think; reviewing Espers and beginning a series of podcasts is the most ambitious thing I and the others at A Rather Pleasant Site have attempted. We are not music experts. We are amateurs. Please correct us, because we are bound to have gotten some things wrong. Links are below.

Podcast Release Announcement

The Podcast on SoundCloud

The Podcast on Bandcamp (broken into 3 parts)

EDIT: The Podcast is now on YouTube

The Meteo Xavier tag on A Rather Pleasant Site

Direct links to reviews of tracks of Espers

Tritochiark - Vestigial Dreamcatcher for the Heavenly Integer

Ornamekias - A Slight Wave From the Hill Above

Amenemhetopelzai - Ancient King Lost In Memories

Saelmeth - The Rusted Voice of a Forgotten Godwraith

Icidina - Royal Highshiva of the Glacierplains

Maria Le Pitruzelluca Celeste XVII - The Sound of God's Love Made Flesh

Navi Whisperwilde - The Forest Sprite and the Mana Spirit in Eternal Recurrence

Sagetellah - The One Who Waits for the Life to Come (Featuring Michael Huang)

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  • 5 months later...

Can you believe I'm Necro-posting this again? Well I have a good reason this time, the album is re-mastered and now re-released through a new record label: Dope Records.

New information has been posted to the main post. Please support this album because the guys who run Dope Records are utterly fantastic guys and I would love it if they got to receive some of the same support you guys have shown me for this release. Thank you again!

The new album is on this bandcamp: http://doperecords.bandcamp.com/album/espers.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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