A warm sound environment for the cold winter moments This is the debut release by the Greek chill-out label Cosmic Leaf… A quick look at the tracklist reveals only a couple of vaguely familiar names – to put it short, most of the artists you’ll find here are chill-rookies… let’s check ‘em out… Let me take you thru the tracks… #01: MLT – Sardonia This is a project by Mitiades Shimatariotis from Greece… Organic chill here… Soothing ambient with chilled, dubby beats…Some piano, xylophone and maybe even a harpsichord? Yeah, this is winter chill indeed… Nice! #02: D.Batistatos – In the Bottom of the Ocean Next up is Dimitris Batistatos also from Greece… I can see where got the inspiration for the name – this is underwater ambient… Mellow organic chill – lazy percussion, harp and subtle female vocals… All very nice and relaxing… =D #03: Zero Cult – If Zero Cult is Israeli chill producer Emil Ilyayev and we get a more dubby approach to winter chill here… Even some breaks and cut up beats and percussion… Intelligent elevator music! #04: Del & Gen – Whisper More Greeks – this time the George Deliginannis & Nick Stratigos… Here we get all kinds of cool synth FX and deep dubby beats… We even get some vocals here (whispering, duh) on this very melodic and head-bop friendly downbeat tune… #05: Random Designers vs. Arcane Trickster – Golden Triangle Both Random Designers and Arcane Trickster have had several releases on mostly Australian labels like Green Ant and Tempest Recordings… So they are not rookies like most of the rest… This tune is mix of tribal percussion, dubby kicks and world beats… A big old downbeat electronica melting pot… Reminds me of some of the Kukan-Dub-Lagan stuff… #06: Side Liner – Next Page Side Liner is Cosmic Leaf label manager Nick Miamis from Greece – and this is actually the track with the highest psy cross-over potential… IMO at least… Synths, strings, subtle percussion, lazy dub beats – and just a hint of psychedelia… Nice combo… #07: Zero Cult – P-Ray Second track by Israeli Zero Cult... To begin with, this one is a little faster than the first one… Deep slow beats, standard hi-hat and subtle percussion… The main attraction of this tune is the naïve Vangelis-esque piano melody… It sounds very familiar – and very nice… Sweet track! #08: Omegahertz – Nostos (Vocal Edition) We’re back in Greece with this track by Demitris Pouranis… Very chilled ambient here with Eastern influences – harmonic pads and some delicate string action… This track slowly builds and different FX are added… Like twisted synths, electro bits, orchestral pads, flutes and a fitting bassline… Chilled ambient with worldbeat influences and vocals – as the title suggests… A very nice track indeed! #09: Goasia – Nature Goasia is Balint Tihamer from Serbia & Montenegro… He already released three tracks on the Kagdila compilation Pure Planet… This tune is very organic, though with thick electro parts… Digital birds, choir singing, loads of synths and dub beats… You can’t help but crack a smile when listening to this… #10: Outer Heaven – Undo the Future The last track is also of Greek origin. This time it’s Aggelos Kechagias & Michael Babedakis… Again a very natural sounding track – organic, with slooooooow deep beats…Pitch-changes, etc… A little experimentation as the compilation draws to a close… Alright, so what do we have here? A bunch of chilled ambient tunes done mostly by debuting artists… There is nothing that really stands out here. Neither super-awesome – nor super-awful… This is pretty standard. Actually most of the tunes here are nice. Not outstanding – just nice… The flow is very good for a compilation – I’d swear this could have been by a single artist… So journey-wise this compilation is great… I’ve listened to it quite a lot over the last month, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this works best as background music for chilling out or sleeping, etc. You don’t sit down and listen to this intense as you would with an Ultimae or Aleph Zero release… It needs more stand-out tracks to be compared with the heavyweights… But for a debut release this is not bad at all… I’m looking forward to future Cosmic Leaf releases… Die hard chill fans will enjoy this for sure – check it out… It’ll help keep you warm in the coldest of winter times…. Enjoy!