artist: Alpha Wave Movement country of origin: USA style(s): Spacemusic, ambient trance, Berlin-school ambient essential releases: Edge Of Infinity (1997, Groove Unlimited) Drifted Into Deeper Lands (2000, Groove Unlimited) Bislama [with Jim Cole] (2001, Harmonic Resonance)  A Distant Signal (2002, Harmonic Resonance) Cosmology (2003, Groove Unlimited)

It is not hard to tell that American composer Gregory T. Kyryluk absorbed a lot of old-school German spacemusic in his formative years. We can be thankful he did because, along with fellow Americans Jonn Serrie and the group Spacecraft, he's grown into one of the most sensitive practitioners of ambient spacemusic in the world, past or present. His one-man project Alpha Wave Movement has taken the classic Berlin-school sound across the Atlantic and into the 21st century without succumbing to either brazen recycling or moving it too far from its sonic roots.

Kyryluk hit his stride with the second Alpha Wave album Edge Of Infinity, a work so exquisitely spaced out it could have been piped in from the other side of the Milky Way. The fundamentals of the European old-school are all there - deep melodies and chords, a lightness of touch, and rhythms and pads that gently throb and pulse and skim across your consciousness rather than kick straight ahead. To these basics Kyryluk applies his own considerable imagination, not to mention some better music technology than possessed by his forebears. The short but epic title track builds beautifully until two layered melodies cry and sigh across the heavens in perfect symmetry. "Travel Into The Nexus" pulls you into a mystical ceremony of eerie vocal swells and hypnotic tones, with the slow motion pulse of tom-toms providing a brilliantly simple backdrop.

Drifted Into Deeper Lands is, as the title suggests, more landscaped and less concerned with cosmic themes. The tracks are longer, their structure a little less defined, with chords extending over longer arcs and sometimes under laid by raw, drifting percussive loops in the environmental style of Steve Roach. This is territory trodden many times by American electronic composers yet Kyryluk avoids the clichés by using a sonic palette that is largely his own. Another successful variation on Alpha's earlier sound is the superb collaboration Bislama. Asian percussion sounds and the alien buzz of Jim Cole's harmonic throat singing all blend beautifully with layers of drifting, morphing synth chords. Both albums intrigue with their departures from the pure spacemusic template, while still retaining that sense of awe and reverence that marks Alpha Wave Movement's best work.

A Distant Signal returns to the extra-planetary themes and spaces of Edge Of Infinity. Gone is some of Infinity's prettiness and in its place is a certain melancholy loneliness, like the floating strings and dislocated bleeps of "Liquid Cosmos". Space is, unsurprisingly, a lonely place. There is a complexity to the drum patterns on "Outward Bound" that most spacemusic composers rarely bother with, but Kyryluk can be bothered and emerges with a better track for it. For sheer enveloping warmth "A Place Of Peace" and "No Mans Land" are the albums highlights.

Alpha's seventh album Cosmology is defined by its generous melodies, developed rhythms and polished production. These qualities make it the most accessible record for new listeners coming from a dance or rock music background. The fifteen-minute "Teutonic Voyage" is driven by an urgent sequencer pulse that recalls Tangerine Dream's most exciting moments, and both this and "Celestial Mechanics" play with an updated sound that echoes the patterns and sonic language of modern club trance. Not pure ambient spacemusic, then, but who really cares? For that just check "Distant Edens" with its waves of blissful keyboard washes that unfold with all the poise and delicacy of a beautiful flower. Aside from the five albums listed above, also recommended for Alpha fans is Kyryluk's excellent collaborative tribute to old-school European ambient sounds, recorded under the name Thought Guild.

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