This CD is made up of three compositions: Sevan, The Tubes, and Coimbra 4, Mundi Theatre.

Sevan is built from a recording of Armenian musician Parik Nazarian’s vocalizations in massive pipes near the shore of Lake Sevan, Armenia. It explores resonance, echoes, and voice properties.

The Tubes weaves together the breath-like sounds of the Atlantic Ocean as it strikes tubular volcanic rock formations on the Island of El Hierro (the westermost of the Canary Islands) with the breathy tones of Jon Hassell’s trumpet and Mark Atkin’s didgeridoo, creating a starkly beautiful study of breath patterns and the sounds of air in tubes. (The Tubes was mixed by composer/producer Michael Hoenig.)

Coimbra 4, Mundi Theatre is a bright, colorful soundscape of the Portuguese city Coimbra during a recent music festival/spectacle that involved most of the townspeople as participants.

Michael Fahres, who studied composition with Louis Andriessen and Ton de Leeuw, is a composer whose recent work has been devoted to electro-acoustic soundscapes. He also is an award-winning producer for Dutch radio and television—NPS, VPRO, NPS. He has been director of the CEM electronic studio, director of the “European Minimal Music Project”, festival programmer for “Soundscapes be(for)e 2000” and other international music events. Previous recordings of his music have been released on the ECM, Trikont, and Goethe Institute labels.

“I was transfixed by the haunting sounds and the poetic pacing of Fahres’ music on this CD. Rather than the sound floating through the room, it was as if I was floating in the sound.” —Morton Subotnick

“Fahres is skillful in creating drama and blending the recorded materials into intriguing, musically satisfying soundscapes. The Tubes, which lasts over 30 minutes, is an especially impressive achievement.” —Stephen Edins, All-Music Guide