THE SECOND ROOM
CD CASE: deep chill

Shulman -- “Endless Rhythms of the Beatless Heart” (Aleph Zero Records)


The Shulman project's much anticipated fourth album has been both keeping me up nights and putting me to sleep. For a chill album this significant, this is indeed high praise.

It’s kept me up night after night in search of the proper prose – chillout music requires a different approach than full-on psychedelic trance. Since it’s meant to be appreciated in a relaxed atmosphere, the only way to properly understand is to listen to it that way. Therein lies the problem. The new Shulman is so delightfully relaxing that you can’t resist its invitation to dreamland. And at some point you realize that these nightly nocturnal explorations have gone on for way too long. Which is why I’m here writing like hell tonight.

“Endless Rhythms of the Beatless Heart” is a deep ambient journey like you’ve never taken before. Yaniv Shulman and Omri Harpaz spent four years crafting this masterwork, weaving together the finest psychedelic elements of East and West, classic and contemporary, classical Indian, Arab and Greek music and even touches of jazz into an inviting soundscape of hypnotizing atmospheric moments and mystical ambient touches.

Aleph Zero head Shahar is building an incredible yearend tradition by delivering revolutionary chill offerings just in time for the holidays. We had the “Natural Born Chillers” compilation in 2004, “Sines and Singularities,” by Bluetech in 2005, and last year’s Omnimotion “Dream Wide Awake.”