"Live In Barcelona 1999" is the result of the collaboration of Spanish guitarist Albert Giménez and Spanish synthesist Dom F. Scab under the side project Cosmic Ni. The album compiles the memorable concerts by Giménez and Scab at Abaixadors-10 Theatre (June 6, 1999) and at Sidecar Club (June 22, 1999), in Barcelona, Spain.

The five themes are improvissed sessions recorded live. The music can be placed between Ambient and Trance. Touches of psychedelic rock are also present, and even come to have a leading role in different parts of the release. Also there are some traits from Jazz and other varied elements that contribute to enrich the pieces.

The artists utilize electronics and sonic collages with great imagination, succeeding in creating musical structures far from the most usual trends.

Dom F. Scab is a Spanish synthesist who began his career in 1995 with the group At-Moss and the trilogy "Morphing Synthesizers". His music and sounds are strongly inspired by Tangerine Dream and Vangelis. "Necessary Fears" is his 8th solo album.

This keyboard player performs a very dynamic electronic music that is based on recurrent rhythms, synthetic loops and emphatic percussions that put him very close to Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. Like them, he likes this kind of constructions that put a lot of stress on a dynamic rhythmic melody, enhanced and punctuated by contrasted percussions and sequenced patterns.

Recommended.

The album "Crosswords" by Spanish synthesist Dom F. Scab is for anyone interested in instrumental music that is more focused than all-out smooth spacemusic yet a bit more cerebral than prog-rock.

This album delivers seven tracks which reference majestic moments in classic works by Vangelis and the calming sounds of repetition circa Tangerine Dream's early 'Blue' years. While Scab builds his music with these touchstones, the arrangement, execution and vision is completely his own. The music on "Crosswords" is in constant motion, stopping, starting and shifting at the will of a dexterous composer. Scab's tone patterns are energetic and cycle through many engaging variations. His sequencer can run full-tilt, producing heart-pounding syncopated rhythms, then dramatically slow down to a percolating, bubbling pace. The melodic content spins above and below the rhythm floor. Scab's wide open synth lead lines energize the brightening air, shifting tone wildly. There are also places where the mood becomes more settled, locating a less playful and more reverential space.

Scab's greatest accomplishment is creating music that is engaging and listenable without being simplistic.

Dom F. Scab is one of the most internationally recognized Spanish electronic musicians in the field of analog synthesis, despite being unknown in his own country except for the experts in this style. His presence forces us to remember that there is a good number of followers of this kind of ambient and secuencial electronic music in Spain, and that during the 70’s the country counted it with one of it’s pioneer european bands: Neuronium.

Despite of the influence of synthesists from the 70’s, such as Neuronium and other obvious references like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, Dom F. Scab finds his own way of creating a contemporary and personal style.
Dom F. Scab’s approach to the german sequential tradition and the ambient electronica started by Vangelis is combined in a very clever way with actual rhythm programming. This move turns his music into a really attractive offer, far from the typical dullness of some 'new age' and electronic ambient works.

"Twelve Stories", his new album in Margen Records label, is a perfect blend between traditional sequenced synthesizer music and contemporary electronic, a stunning excursion into the realm of New-Berlin School music fusing dark, undulating tone clusters with dense, warm melodies that swirl in and out of these twelve stories.
The tracks of this work, like in other Dom F. Scab works, have a coherent structure and a fresh dialectic progression, far from the repetitive patterns in some of this kind of electronic music. Lush, ambient textures are overtaken by frenetic, complex sequencers and amazing melodies. Trance like percussive sections give way to surrealistic, dream-like passages. Although Scab is obviously seeking for new directions for his creativity and compositions, he again proves that he is able to produce true classical EM masterpieces with just a flavor of modern music.

From "Twelve Stories" I would note "I'm Sorry But We Have Moved To Saturn", an ambient track where the massive analog sequences are combined with the incomparable Vangelis CS80 style strings.

The album offers an excellent production and care of the analog sound, typical of one of the most European experts in analog synthesis.

Spanish synthesist Dom F. Scab has obviously been heavily influenced by the 'post-kosmische musik' contemporary electronic sequencer music that emerged during the 1980's. Music of this era brimmed with optimism and energy as a generation of artists swept onto the scene, embracing new technology while emulating and complementing their idols - taking the genre beyond cliche with artistic expectations met and often exceeded.

On "About A Tree", Dom F. Scab offers nine vital compositions which are both further refinements of his craft as well as significant contributions to the genre as a whole. This album is characterized by the much-loved arpeggiations of staccato synthesizer tones and sequencer acrobatics revered by audience and musician alike. Pieces on "About A Tree" each average in the 5 - 10 minute range. The music always develops quickly and without hesitation, running thoughtfully through its twisty course of breathtaking tempo changes, ambidextrous rhythm patterns and advancing and retreating layers of syncopated synth pulsations. Scab's series of connected and rapidly orbiting synth tones cascade up, down and through major, minor and diminished chords. Giving depth and dimension to this flowing latticework of rhythmed tone and echo are Scab's gorgeous, breathy synthesized harmonies and bright, warm analogue lead lines. Here and there Scab provides the listener with some contrast in the form of smooth, floating, fully formed realizations of drifting space - a moment of reflection before another launch.

Throughout "About A Tree", Scab seems to be pushing his hardware and software to its limits - nearly searing circuitry's or overloading microchips through the musical energy generated. Yet his dedication to the vintage sounds and aural explorations of electronic music is boundless - as it is fed by the excitement and enthusiasm of an artist constantly in pursuit of his full potential and that of his mode of expression.