Reviews/interviews/photos.
LATEST REVIEWS:
Venus in Transit, on Lost in a Sea of Sound (October 20, 2023):
"Venus in Transit is another empyrean slab of electronic fire ... Daniel Guillén has special talent for posing massive temporal sounds with incorporeal sonic aura. A serene and moving composition built for many listens."
Venus in Transit, on Record Crates United (September 19, 2023):
"This is a total sound bath. Drifting ethereal tones and electronic pulses sway and quiver through vast cosmic seas on Lunaria’s Venus in Transit. Kosmische heroes like Tangerine Dream creep up in the mix, as does the work of John Carpenter, which feels beautifully called out on the tense 80s-like 'Moonstar.'"
Venus in Transit, on Foxy Digitalis (July 19, 2023):
"Lunaria beams in from another world with Venus in Transit, an expansive exploration of distant worlds and the future cosmos. Floating arpeggios glide across the neon skies and open hidden pathways to luminous vistas and enchanted atmospheres. Synth arrangements move slowly, with purpose, filling the immense skyscapes with expressive patterns. Tonal sequences in all directions. Dreamlike tonal structures emerge from the watery sonics, and invitation to bathe in these shapeshifting, emotive sounds. Playful melodies dance with crystalline keyboard sequences in the pulsating aural sea, blithe, and adrift. Venus in Transit is an incredible trip. I never want it to end."
Path of the Sun, on Textura (April 2021):
"A mix of ambient washes, bell tinklings, and synthesizer warblings immediately suggests the sound design on Path of the Sun will dazzle robustly. To that end, “Aquatic Sun” unfolds like a fever dream teeming with vibrant life-forms—more a cross-pollination of psychedelia and New Age than ambient per se. (...) Its partner, “Portal of Twilight,” eases into position peacefully, with shimmering organ tones filling out the sound field and radiant textures expanding it multi-dimensionally thereafter. Pulsating like some simmering geological entity, it's the sedate one of the two, though it does gradually swell to an epic, starry-eyed pitch."
Asphodel Meadows, on On the Fringes of Sound (December 20, 2020):
"An ethereal journey into a lush, tranquil, soothing galaxy of Ambient brilliance... Treat yourself to a listen to Asphodel Meadows by Lunaria if you wish to be taken to another dimension in your psyche. It will take you on a journey through multiple dimensions of sonic depth while instilling a sense of ethereal warmth on your eardrums."
Asphodel Meadows, on Optimistic Underground (December 16, 2020):
"Daniel Guillén continues to prove that he’s one of the brightest, most thoughtful, and spiritually in-touch new age/ambient artists alive... Asphodel Meadows sounds like the cover art looks, although far more beautiful and soul nourishing than could be accurately pictured."
Inner Vision, on Otras músicas. Otros mundos (July 21, 2020):
"Inner Vision ('visión interior') contiene seis temas de corte cósmico, introspectivos y enfocados al viaje mental. La atmósfera es muy luminosa, como si la mayoría de piezas del álbum fuesen pequeños caleidoscopios con los que recrearse en los efectos de la luz."
Ascension Now, on Otras músicas. Otros mundos (May 21, 2020):
"Está claro que Guillén conoce bien el terreno del ambient y la electronic music, la música "planeadora" de la Escuela de Berlín (Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel) y la música cósmica, trascendental e introspectiva, practicada por gente como Robert Rich, Jonn Serrie o Constance Demby (...) Ascension Now está planteado, y ya su título lo anuncia, como un viaje interior en busca de un nivel más alto de conciencia. (...) Las capas de sonido evocan amplios paisajes en los que, pese a lo estático de las dos piezas que componen el trabajo, pasan muchas más cosas de lo que parece."
Inner Vision, on Optimistic Underground (December 16, 2019):
"Daniel Guillén, the man who gave the world Lunaria, stepped out from behind the moniker this year for his most personal and profound album yet. Inner Vision could play like a manifesto for the ambient artist, whose Buddhist approach to music creation has always felt as natural as breathing to me. It takes everything great about his prior works, the new age atmosphere and the relaxed optimism and enthusiasm for life, and infuses it with an urgency and newfound depth. While the songs here feel more meaningful, they also ascend to even greater heights of aesthetic beauty. (...) This is pure cosmic love from the depths of the sound universe, enveloping the listener in a sense of oneness and calm, acceptance and balance, the very essence of aural pleasure. It needs to be heard to be believed."
Inner Vision, on Nine Chains to the Moon (August 15, 2019):
"Lovely (...) This release expands on the overall Lunaria template, adding plucked string accompaniment and a melodic sensibility to the thick drone tapestries that one might be used to. (...) Melodic and celestial. (...) Such a delicate orbit is meant to be explored, so I implore our readers to drift over to the Muzan Editions Bandcamp and experience Inner Vision for themselves."
Inner Vision, on Lost in a Sea of Sound (July 4, 2019):
"These six selections are extensions of an infinite amount of amazing details in every life. A cosmic synthesizer in tune with the galactic medium of tones. Daniel's timbre and pace is the common tongue for consciousnesses at higher vibrations. The dialogue concerning the clarity of love and it's ability to bring everyone to elevated paths."
Mist and Light, on Nine Chains to the Moon (April 4, 2019):
"This wave-like undulation seemed to sync up with my own brainwaves, lulling me into an almost hypnagogic state"
Mist and Light, on Somewherecold (February 18, 2019):
"Mist and Light is a transcendental experience. Lunaria proves to inspire, calm, and create a cascade of beautiful aural rivers that can evoke so much for so many. This is the kind of music you want to listen to through headphones while in a place of meditation."
Mist and Light, on Noisey (Vice) (February 8, 2019):
"The Spanish musician Lunaria makes electronic instrumentals in the long dewy-eyed tradition of synthesists like Steve Roach. His pieces are long, sweeping, and dramatic, with titles like All Is Dream, Ascension Now, and Water Mind. This new tape, Mist and Light, is firmly in the same lane, offering four lengthy pieces full of water sounds and lilting synth lines meant to evoke and explain the half-light of the liminal space between wake and sleep. It’s peaceful and mystic music, seemingly tailormade for hungover Sunday mornings when the light’s peeking through through the blinds just a little too brightly and the world feels a little too loud. Lay on your couch, let your head spin, and zone away."
Water Mind, on The Best New Ambient Music on Bandcamp (October 5, 2018):
"Water Mind ... is a magical journey that winds through celestial instrumental flourishes and dizzying synthesis, which moves in waves like a river ... It's a really special record."
Ascension Now, on Microphones in the Trees! (December 31, 2018):
"With each new release, Lunaria ascends to a new plane of quality, deepness, and awareness of its sound. As blooming fractal of thousand of petals, its sound takes the mind out of mundane reality and puts it right into the place. Place, where we all need to be at least sometimes. Just not to forget who we are and where are we heading."
Ascension Now, on The Answer Is in the Beat (July 7, 2018):
"I wish they played and sold music like this at new age bookstores. Purely uplifting and relaxing without being cheesy or seeming like it’s catering to a niche audience ... this tape is serene and enjoyable."
Ascension Now, on Cassette Gods (June 17, 2018):
"Once PLAY has been pressed, Spain’s Daniel Guillén pulls every trick in the New-Age-Old Handbook to hook us into his panned, reverb + phaser-filled tractor beams, gently transporting us to this precipice/utopia/be-all-end-all-vantage-point. ... While this album could easily be the perfect yoga soundtrack of the millennia (did I mention how expertly timed the phaser is, alongside deep breathing?), I’m more than willing to bet that your blaring it from the bedroom hi-fi will get them neighbors chill/relaxed/mindful enough to wait until at LEAST 9am, before mowing their lawns, from now on. Forever-ever."
Ascension Now, on Somewherecold (May 31, 2018):
"Lunaria is a project which generates the kind of ambient music that envelops the listener in peaceful aural sound-blankets. Guillén’s work is wonderfully patient and deceptively simple. The layers produced float in and out of each other’s orbits while congealing to create a hypnotic atmosphere. ... Daniel Guillén is a patient, careful composer who creates striking ambient pieces that sooth and calm the listener."
Ascension Now, on Microphones in the Trees! (May 30, 2018):
"Immediate sensation of something stellar happening spirals here up and down with enough harmonic saturation to bring gentle psychedelic effect. Something similar to which I always admired in David Parsons and Mathias Grassow's pioneering works, and in the ambient new age in general – heady drones lifting your mind up from the routine and small thoughts. Up to the planes of pure experience of the moment, to acceptance of things how they are right here and right now... "
Ascension Now, on Tabs Out Cassette Podcast (May 25, 2018):
"Applying spiritual terminology to ambient releases is nothing new, but in this case, the title is everything. Half of this release is a steady climb into mystical realms above the clouds. The other half, a life lived in that transcendent place. This is music for cleansing, healing, reconnecting. There are no sharp edges. All is light."
Ascension Now, on Drifting, Almost Falling (May 21, 2018)
"You get a feeling of
weightlessness in the music ... In a way this is a soundtrack to lying
on your back on grass and staring into the night sky."
Ascension Now, on Tiny Mix Tapes (May 15, 2018):
"The final entry in Tatsu’s batch comes courtesy of Spanish ambient monster Lunaria. The excerpt we have from “A Higher Energy Realm,” taken from the artist’s Ascension Now release, hits the sweet spot with severely blissed-out synthscapes ready for your jamming pleasure."
All Is Dream, on Cassette Gods (July 29, 2017):
"This is beautiful. Everything about this album is beautiful from the music to the gorgeous packaging of the cassette itself. This is how ambient music should be done."
All Is Dream, on Optimistic Underground (November 17, 2016):
"The music here is flush with vast, yawning chasms of melancholy synth tones and little, delicate patches of nature, of tangible elements that feel hand crafted and carefully placed. These songs ache with sensuality, humming with an affection for the experience of feeling a moment through all of one’s senses."
All Is Dream, on Lost in a Sea of Sound (October 1, 2016):
"When people listen to Lunaria, their wonder will sparkle with thoughts augmented by the music. Cognition will radiate both inward and outward and moments of serenity will appear through the haze."
All Is Dream, on Microphones in the Trees! (September 29, 2016):
"There is no escapism. Global civilization, the Humankind, even Cyberspace - everything is Nature, part of our planet's evolutionary process. And this whole process is just a part of universal dream. Who dreams it? We all do, and by doing that we can make all kinds of things... And we do them, many different things, not always pleasant - saying "what the difference?". But when someone makes music like this, when someone listens to it and it makes one's dream a bit brighter and lucid - I can be only happy. And it makes a difference."
All Is Dream, on The Hum (September 12, 2016):
"The cassette embraces a world of quiet meditation, enveloping the listener in a dreamy world of synthesizers, ambience, texture, and warmth. Heard blind, you’d likely think that it had been made sometime in the late 70’s or early 80’s – but this isn’t a piece of nostalgia. It’s an intervention, forcing us to question what we understand about this territory of sound, where it once sat against the larger body of culture, and how it exists in the world today. This isn’t just beautiful music. It offers a path, and leaves us with questions."
INTERVIEWS:
Interview on Inner Islands (March 2021, Path of the Sun in conversation with Sean Conrad): http://innerislands.com/pots-inconversation2021.html
Interview on Votive Landscapes (Russian) (January 2020). English version here.
Interview on MondoSonoro Aragón (Spanish) (September 2018):
PHOTOS:
