Alio Die: Italian Ambient Music

Last time 'round I was touting Freegal as a good source of dance music singles, but there's another side to my love of this service: ambient music.  I've barely begun to dig through the virtual crates of ambient electronic music Freegal offers, but I've already found a good deal of stuff released by one of my most recent musical loves, Alio Die.

Soviet Sci-Fi

So yeah, this is supposed to be a music blog, but for this entry I'm gonna ramble on about a book which led me to a film which led me to some music.

The book is Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and it was only by good marketing that I noticed it in the first place.  Along with a line claiming Roadside Picnic was the inspiration for both a movie and a video game, a prominently placed note at the bottom of the cover informed me that the book contained a new forward written by Ursula LeGuin.  I've been a fan of LeGuin's work for many years, so I was immediately intrigued and checked out Roadside Picnic.

The Orb featuring David Gilmour "Metallic Spheres"

 

This little treasure was released a few years back and is cause for much rejoicing among fans of the Orb. As for fans of David Gilmour and Pink Floyd, well I've never been one of them, so I couldn't tell you much there. However, I've been a big fan of the Orb since their first LP appeared back in 1991, and Metallic Spheres is a welcome return to the act's early form.