artist: Carbon Based Lifeforms country of origin: Sweden style(s): Ambient trance, acid trance, psy-ambient, breakbeat, spacemusic essential releases: Hydroponic Garden (2003, Ultimae Records) World Of Sleepers (2006, Ultimae Records) Interloper (2010, Ultimae Records)

Since its inception in 2000, French-based label Ultimae Records has been setting the global standard for what could broadly be called ambient trance and its various genre spin-offs. For a broad view of the label check out the superb various-artist collections of the Fahrenheit Project series; for a close-up of individual talent on Ultimae look no further than these two releases by the Swedish duo of Johannes Hedberg and Daniel Ringstrom.

Before their third album Hydroponic Garden the duo issued several self-published albums through MP3.com. Listening to them now it's clear that at that point the various elements of their sound were still coalescing. It's on their three albums for Ultimae that the duo's sound comes of age, a consist ant trio of releases with each one seemingly picking up where its predecessor left off.

This music revels in mystery, charting a course through slow, slightly distorted breakbeats and slow 4/4 doof with layered and lush synthetic chords, suggesting something akin to a long scuba dive in the waters of an alien world. Hedberg and Ringstrom construct their tracks with great care, blending ambient trance, beatless ambient, electro and Euro ambient-techno elements with patches of static, garbled radio transmissions and disembodied voice bytes. The collision of genre patterns often works brilliantly. The melancholic "MOS 6581" from Hydroponic Garden, for example, summons the exquisitely-layered liquid harmonies of Tangerine Dream but confounds expectations with its brittle, crunchy trip-hop drum break. These albums are wonderfully deep and immersive, and dreamy even amid the dark, urgent intensity of tracks like "Proton/Neutron" from World Of Sleepers with its Roland 303 acid-house snarls and massive bottom end.

World Of Sleepers is positively storming at times and the album is particularly well suited to cranking up the volume. Interloper is noticeably less dark than the other two, with the shimmering "Frog" being perhaps the most luminous, openly loving piece of music they've done. All three albums are exceptional releases, rich in atmosphere and wonder and often drenched in harmonies. Essential for anyone who appreciates ambient trance's creative potential while still remaining melodic and accessible.

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