jeffrey koepper: Press

JEFFREY KOEPPER: Sequentaria (CD on Air Space Records)

This release from 2008 offers 71 minutes of masterful electronic music.

This time, Koepper did it all, with final mastering by Steve Roach.

A masterful confidence permeates the electronics on this album. Tonal foundations are fairly buried beneath layers of enthralling lead riffs that intertwine to produce a lavish tapestry of delightfully compelling tunes.

Sparkling loops and gurgling textures provide ample ambience, but Koepper’s manner of nudging these aspects into the forefront of the mix enlivens the music. This luscious dominance results in a constant state of blossoming brilliance These songs exude an immensely appealing sophistication bursting with electronic vitality and bewitching melodies.

Keyboards introduce even more threads to that crowded tapestry, resulting in melodies that are dense but not ponderous. Cycles are established, then embellished slowly, hiding their evolution in the thick mix, only to pop forth ripe with entrancing splendor. Stunning pinnacles abound in these tunes.

E-perc serves to boost a few tunes with bouncy rhythms. Other tracks rely upon strident keyboard patterns to establish a rhythmic presence; these low-impact tempos often possess more oomph than any percussion could produce.

Koepper’s ability to imbue simple riffs with lofty eminence is astounding. His tendency to combine numerous minimal elements into lavish structures of pulsating puissance is guaranteed to be an ultimate satisfaction to EM enthusiasts seeking music that bridles with energized vigor while retaining a mesmerizing edge.

The compositions flourish with a rich sense of regal command. These soothing melodies generate a pronounced invigoration, gradually accruing power with each subsequent passage until an impressive stage of epicurean grandeur is achieved.

Jeffrey Koepper’s third release Sequentaria finds him fully in retro mode, with catchy melodic EM in the style of Tangerine Dream from the early 1980s, perhaps my favorite era of theirs, with the trio of Froese, Franke and Schmoelling. For example, “Blue Sector” sounds like it could have fit comfortably on Exit. The simple pulsing rhythm, the cool vintage sounds from the PPG Wave, the stutter-step sequencing, it all plays out perfectly for a warm and inviting beginning. “Astral Projection” starts out all bubbly and spacey, taking its sweet time before hypnotic sequencing again envelops you. The pacing on “Timeline” is particularly effective, chugging along just so. Classic synth lead lines will have Teutonic enthusiasts in heaven. “Near Machinery” is one of my favorites, a perfect blend of soft, rapid sequencing, adept synth solos, and warm pads. “Interphase” gives a nod to Jean-Michel Jarre with its tinkling crisp percussion that harkens back to the days of Oxygene. Each selection is allowed just the right amount of time to develop and set the mood before moving on to the next juncture. And to the delight of gearheads, Koepper gives the complete run-down of the synths and sequencers used on each and every track. Required listening for Berlin school fans.

Jeffrey Koepper

July 2008



For more background on this month’s interview subject, solo American synth artist Jeffrey Koepper, please read his bio page on his website. Thanks Jeff for the interview, I really appreciate it!



In April you performed at The Gatherings concert series. How did that go?




The Gatherings concert went great. Chuck Van Zyl and his crew are great guys to work with and everything went off without a hitch. I think that is the best venue to play live electronic music - being an old stone church the sound is incredible and it is visually very inspiring. I have become spoiled playing there. It doesn't get much better than that for atmosphere.

How does playing this sort of music live compare to being in the studio?

Playing live is like nothing else, it is an incredible feeling. For me it is very different from the studio. The studio is a more controlled intimate solo experience, where it is just you and the machines creating. Live has the energy of the room and the audience which can really build an intense feeling. This feeling in turn will take you into new directions for the compositions.

Your music has a very "composed" feel to it. How much does improvisation play a part in your creative process, versus carefully planning things out?

Well, I would say my music is mostly improvised and done in the moment, inspired by the feeling of the moment. I rarely plan and compose music before I go into the studio. In the studio I work with the machines and the different interfaces they offer, these interfaces in turn influence the music and how I make music. I try to get as much of the composition going as possible and then capture it live to a two track mix. I feel that captures the life and energy of a piece. I may then add some textures and sounds during a final mix. That way the feeling of the composition is captured and there is still room at the end to fine tune and finalize a piece.

On your website, at the end of a long list of familiar musical influences in EM and synth-pop, you go on to mention "Arp, Oberheim, Moog, Sequential Circuits and many others." So how important is the technology in making good electronic music? And how is it an "influence"?

The technology I use to make music is very important. I feel the type of musical equipment you use directly influences the style and direction the music will take. I list companies such as Arp, Oberheim, Moog, Sequential Circuits and others as influences because the sound and interface they offer directly influences how I work on a composition. I also feel that most of the music I like and that I was influenced by was done in the past using that type of equipment; that is proof enough for me. I could be called a Luddite in the fact that I don't use a computer at all in the studio. Everything I use is hardware, down to an analog mixing board and recorder. I could never work in the "mouse controlled" world of computer recording and soft synths. I just can't connect to that world.

Your list of gear is impressive. How were you able to amass such an impressive collection for your studio?



The gear and old technology has always been important for me from day one. When I first got into music and bought my first synthesizer in 1985, it was analog. The funny thing was analog was on its way out of fashion but I just knew from day one I loved analog synths. People would say to me back then "why do you want that old junk" but I didn't care, I knew what I wanted. During that period the prices of analog synths dropped very low because there was little or no interest in them from most musicians. So you were able to buy them reasonably priced. But little by little people started to realize that analog synths were incredible machines and not outdated, so now the prices are back up to where they should be in my opinion for such wonderful machines.



Do you have a personal favorite in your synth collection?



I really can't say I have one favorite synth, they are all so different and good at different things. I love the aspects of the synths that give them their unique personality. For example ARP instruments are very different in tone to the Oberheim synths but I like both just as well...they all have their applications. So I guess I love them all equally. But I do really love everything Arp has done. :)



Your discs have a very professional look and sound, from the packaging to the music. How do you manage to do it all yourself?



Wow thanks for that. I try really hard to bring the best product I can to my audience. I put alot of time and effort into creating and recording the music. I want it to sound beautiful and lush. Steve Roach has been great with mastering my records. He's a great guy and I appreciate what he does. Also the packaging and art is important to me, I grew up with records and incredible 12 X 12 album jackets. I miss that format alot. So with my releases, I try to make them like mini album covers with the digipak format.



Will you remain strictly a solo act, or have you considered collaborating with others? If so, who would you like to work with and why?



I am always open to collaborations, given the members both have something unique to offer. I have collaborated with others in the past and there have been some great musical moments. I really enjoy the feeling of creating new pieces in a group situation. Working with others can lead you in directions you would have never ventured to on your own. As far as people I'd like to work with in the future, I'd love to do a project with Steve Roach, I think that would be very cool.



What is your favorite part about making music?



Well, there are so many aspects I love about making music, it’s hard to pin it down to one. I guess one thing that I really love is the creative spark that happens when composing and a piece starts coming together and coming alive. It is a feeling like no other. This feeling can give me the chills and make you very high and that feeling is also addictive, once you experience it you want it more and more. Another aspect I love about making music is using the older technology to create and bring that to the world. I like to show what is possible using just vintage hardware synths and sequencers. I feel that there is still a lot of good work to be done with this technology and many new directions to explore.



With all the time spent creating music, do you get much of a chance to listen to others? Who are some of your favorites, EM or otherwise?

I do listen to music all the time. I tend to listen to a lot of music that was recorded in the mid seventies to the early to mid eighties. I like the sound and production style of this period. I like the classic EM artists as well as the early eighties electropop artists.



In fact, in addition to the ambient music scene, I do early eighties influenced analog electropop music under the name Wire Service.


Do you listen to your own CDs after you are done with them, or do you tend to move on to the next thing?



I tend not to listen to my CDs for a while after I release them. During and production and mix down you can really over listen to a piece. I will usually go back after about a month and listen to the CD after it is fresh to my ears again and check it out.

Who is your "trusty assistant" in the photos section of your site?



My trusty assistant is my dog Kali, she is a chuiabull, which is a chuiahuia/pit bull mix. She is a great assistant and helps me with inspiration and with all my compositions.

When you aren't making music, what else do you like to do?



When I am not making music I like to restore, build and repair analog synths, this is good for me because I can keep up the studio in great working condition and is necessary. I like to hike and camp and get out into nature whenever possible. I also like to restore and play around with old Volkswagens so I keep pretty busy.♫

Thanks again Jeff for the great interview - we hope to hear from you again soon! Check out Jeff's latest CD Sequentaria, which was reviewed in the June 2008 issue of EAS.

Jeffrey Koepper's latest release "Sequentaria" is a wonderful selection of brilliant analog tracks incorporating a wide variety of synths that create a very organic and traditional space-y electronic sound. The result is a fascinating and engaging sonic journey to the stars and back with Koepper as your guide.

"Blue Sector" opens the disc with a beat-driven sequenced track that establishes the space imagery, the sounds of a trip deep into the stars. Deep pads and sequenced tones play around eachother, blending and feeding off of one another resulting in a dense yet accessible piece that evokes images of stars and nebulae passing by, the inky black depths of space the only constant in an otherwise shifting landscape.

"Astral Projection" blends in seemlessly from the preceeding track. Fluid tones ooze up from a molten opening, building in volume and strength, ultimately leading into a bubbling bed of sounds that flow and ooze through the soundscape. A great track to be sure.

"Timeline" has an alien quality to it, elongated tones that suggests decaying civilizations and lost cultures. It's a haunting piece, a track filled with ghosts and long forgotten memories, sounds rising up from a slowly churning bed of pads, eventually gaining clarity and form in the shape of a sequenced line that accompanies a very nice analog melody.

Track four, "Near Machinery", opens with the sound of flowing pads and tide-like tones, eventually leading into a fast and frenzied sequencer line that dominates the track. High pitched synths play an oblique melody overtop the sequencer work and small melodies come and go as the track continues. Very nicely done.

"Interphase" is a return to familiar spaces. A nice highhat driven rhythm moves the track along, while shifting pads flow and circle around eachother. Occasional tones pass through the soundscape, adding a nice colour to the track, some celestial seasoning as it were. It's a nicely executed track, one that very effectively suggests the idea of space travel.

"Synchronus" is a fine example of sequenced synth work, repeated patterns looping around eachother to create a wall of sound that grows and develops as the track goes on. As time passes more elements are added, often subtle at first, but becoming more noticeable as the track continues. A very nice demonstration of how a track can be built up and developed.

"Parallel Being" follows directly out of the order of the previous track, opening with a more free form sound grounded by a steady drone. As the track continues steady synthlines weave their way into the soundscape, along with light percussive elements paired with some nice melodic work. It's a playful track, one that incorporates a variety of styles and sounds to great effect, and surely one of my favorites on the disc.

"One Hundred Memories" returns to a more sequence driven sound, tones growing organically as the track progresses. It's a nice blend of sequenced and live work, looping patterns facing off nicely against melodic elements.

"Creation" closes the disc, building up the track from a single oscilating tone, adding both melodic and percussive elements as the track continues until it eventually becomes a brilliant wall of sound, tones and melodies mixing and wrapping around eachother in an engaging way until the track peaks and then drifts away. A very impressive track and a lovely way to close the disc.

I've often speculated on what it is that makes analog recordings so spacey to me, what it is that conjures such cosmic imagery. I've never been able to come up with an answer that satisfies, but listening a disc like "Sequentaria" I can totally hear that spacey sound that I'm so fond of, and an answer to my question seems far less important to me than being able to wander through the stars. An excellent disc for wandering, listening and just imagining, "Sequentaria" comes highly recommended by this reviewer.

rik - ping things

This is American Jeffrey Koepper’s third album and his music just keeps getting more impressive with each release. The 9 tracks on SEQUENTARIA as the title implies are a mix of heavily sequential and an almost neo-classic mix of musical layers combining melody, rhythmic syncopation and polyrhythmic arrangements. Not just a TD clone, instead Koepper has created a very modern, kinetic hybrid of melody and motion that’s ever changing and ever more intoxicating as one track flows into the next.

JEFFREY KOEPPER: Momentium (CD on Air Space Records)

This release from 2006 offers 67 minutes of engaging electronic music.

Synthesist Koepper is joined by Kelvin Russell (on additional synthesizers on one track) and Steve Roach (on Xpander textures on three tracks, plus final mastering and enhancements).

Rich textures and demonstrative electronics combine to achieve masterful tuneage. While background tones formulate an engaging ambience, lead electronics provide this music’s real allure. Commanding riffs are created and layered until a lush density is accomplished. That richness communicates an urgency that is gentle but captivating.

Deep notes and crisp timbres conspire to round out the music’s substance. The result is a fusion of airy and gutsy moods, tuneage that is simultaneously grounded and ascendant. This balance is expertly crafted to embody the best of both directions.

Keyboards flourish, littering the flowing music with nimble-fingered riffs that inject luscious attraction to the compositions, whether with gurgling pools or bouncy loops or gripping cosmic sequences.

E-perc is employed in some tracks to lend additional locomotion to the fertile tuneage. These rhythms are fancifully seasoned with auxiliary electronics which serve to cocoon the tempos in surging embellishments, transforming the beats into lush expressions of honeyed resonance.

These compositions are outstanding in their union of expansive power and introspective character. The melodies move from drifting sections to commanding passages, doing so effortlessly, sometimes combining both aspects to achieve a dazzling astral authority. This sense of power remains undiminished even when Koepper turns his attention to dreamy passages, propagating atmospheric textures that throb with the promise of imminent escalation.

SEQUENTARIA New 2008 digi-pack cd from electronic keyboard master JEFFREY KOEPPER! This is his 3rd and best release so far! The cd is full of beautiful electronic sound scapes in the classic 70's Tangerine Dream style! Nice long pieces drift and take you on amazing journeys with electronic rhythms and sequences. Fans of Radio Massacre International, Ark, Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd, Ashra, and Klause Schultz, will love this. GRADE A

Jeffrey Koepper cannot be accused of rushing Sequentaria (70'56") to the marketplace; it sounds as though he has been working on it for over 30 years. His third CD is a robust tour of 1970s and '80s sequencer music - falling somewhere between the venerable Poland, Oxygene and Equinoxe. Although inspired by the first era in electronic music we recognize as our own, Koepper is unafraid to be unfaithful. The originals disappear into this artist's core and the music becomes his alone. Using classic analogue instruments alongside modern hybrids, intertwining sequencer patterns head for the horizon while churning synth pads and buzzing keyboard melodies rise skyward. Electro-percussion approximates a samba rhythm section and ambles through a synthetic landscape rife with heady lead lines. Robo-drums march beneath swelling harmonies, chirping alien-choir and fat tunes spun on vintage gear. From brave anthems and galloping arpeggios all the way down to the introspective phasing of two oscillators, Sequentaria shines brightly in the Spacemusic continuum.

- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END Ambient Radio 9 April 2008

Jeffrey Koepper - Sequentaria

CD, Air Space Records, 2008
As the title suggests, the listener undergoes a sequencer-ride through vintage electronic music, for which skilled hands combined a whole bunch analogue gear with some modern instruments of today.
While recording the music of his third album “Sequentaria” (of which Steve Roach again did the final mastering), Jeffrey remembered he really became one with the compositions on an organic-emotional level, as a lot of feeling and emotion flowed through him into the music, bringing his essence to the forefront and thus tying it all together.
This time, Koepper focussed on a more organic approach, by playing, performing and improvising a lot of the parts in real time along with the analogue sequences. The result gave lots of the melodic improvisations, as more old analogue machines were used that had neither midi or cv/gate interfacing, so they had to be performed in real time. In addition, some vintage drum boxes were applied that had no sync capability, which gave a free flowing organic feel when playing along with their clocks in real time.
Well, the outcome are nine beautiful tracks, ranging between six and ten minutes, offering a nice range of beautiful atmospheric sound pads, retro choir textures and rhythms, all matching nicely together.
The use of the PPG Wave unmistakably makes you think of TD, while the sound of a piece like “Interphase” slightly wanders into Jarre territory. In addition, the beautifully matching sequencing on the sixth “Synchronous” is also nicely done. But for the biggest part, all tracks bear the distinct signatures and profound musical skills of Mr Koepper, of which I’m sure it will please all those who love the fat, classic soundings of 70’s electronic music.
No doubt “Sequentaria” will create a vibe of its own!
4 stars- bert strolenberg

SEQUENTARIA is Jeffrey Koepper's new solo release, and like his previous ETHEREA and MOMENTIUM, SEQUENTARIA relies completely on classic analog synths, drum machines and analog sequencers to construct an organic melodic-rythmic-sequential interweave. The overall feeling is playful and inspired, with a hint of nostalgia as the warmth of vintage analogue sounds and sequences emerge in forms that evolve from the interactive hands-on approach these instruments offer. Fans of classic Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream will be especially interested in this release. Mastered by Steve Roach.

Sequentaria is Jeffrey Koepper's third solo release. This release features Jeffrey Koepper's exploration of analogue sequencer styles and atmospheres. Jeffrey Koepper has been releasing excellent electronic music since 1985 in various groups and collaborations. Koepper is a unique electronic composer in today's world in that he uses a wide variety of vintage synthesizers and sequencers to create his emotional evolving sound-worlds. His mission is to create "The music of tomorrow with the technology of yesterday." Instruments by Oberheim, Arp, Sequential Circuits, Moog, PPG, Emu, Roland and others were put into service in the creation of Sequentaria.The use of the instruments is evident by the smooth lush organic textures and interlocking sequencer patterns that are not possible on modern instruments. All of the songs were created through live real time sound-sculpturing with the composer interacting directly with the tactile interface of the analogue synths and sequencers to make them arise, breathe and come to life. Then the individual tracks are then mixed in real time using an analogue mixing desk and a variety of vintage effects devices. The composer melts the tracks into each other to create these beautiful soundscapes and rhythms. Steve Roach was integral in the final arrangement and finishing treatments of Sequentaria.

Sequentaria continues the exploration of Jeffrey Koepper's analog complexities with a hybrid instrumental approach. More airy than Momentium, Sequentaria truly returns to the analog playground with gravitating heavy reverberating circles, plunging astral waves in cadences, sometimes sober sometimes unbridled. Pulsating complex rhythms and animated sequences lead to random flows of synth swirls à la Jean Michel Jarre coupled to Tangerine Dream's digital sound waves era. A strange fusion that leaves a beautiful musical footprint.
Blue Sector starts this timeless musical voyage with a cosmic intro with cloths of slightly metalic vapours.
Hardly perceptible, the cymbals animate a progressive pace which wakes and layers with vocal cries and cascading sequences building a rythmic mood. Synth layers are dense and intersect in multiple ways with searing vocal effects and dark waves which sweep this stary musical background. Loud synthesized sirens, and metallic sonorities tear this cosmic universe with a chorus of angelic TD’s emanations which shine in an atmosphere filled with analog sound effects and a constant sequential pace. Astral Projection slips towards a more claustrophobic mood. Static, dark and synthetic, the synth pulsations groan in this atonal sphere wrapped in cosmic layers of old analog effects which are shelled in a lyrical pattern. An astral delirium which is melting in the opening of Timeline where sequences and synths are tying in a gallaoping rhythm before landing in the cosmic hazes of Near Machinery. Black is this silence. Dark is the introduction. Near Machinery is moving on heavy circular reverberation with guttural drones, as in a sci-fi movie where the creature is hiding between two walkways. Cadence takes shape on a nevous sequence stuffed with cosmic gases which act as odd percussion. A beautiful acoustic wave wraps this rhythmic experience. followed by fine synths creating a harmonious cosmic waltz. Melodious, the song dives in a sequenced anarchy where percussions roll in a synth storm recalling Synergy's good moments. Calm after the storm, Interphase melts as a beautiful space rumba where galactic sound effects are shaping with lyrical synths creating a sequenced hypnotic pace.
The nervous beat of Synchronous spins in a loop in a captive circular motion. A minimalist circle of heavy and whirling sequences with hypnotic curves which modulate an increasing but atonial musical spiral, matched with short synth spikes. A dark atonal track, just like One Hundred Memories, which is a slow intro/outro to the splendid Parallel Being. A beautiful cosmic ballet, shaken of fine pit viper percussion, in a boreal galactic forest with beautiful mellotron layers to enthralling flutes. Completely delicious. Creation concludes this 3rd Jeffrey Koepper opus with a pulsating intro like Vangelis Charriots of Fire. A minimalist and intense intro which leads to an undulating sequence and solitary percussion, it then reaches a titanic nervous sound paroxysm. A multitude of intersecting sequences intermingle with a bubbling synth fusion where wild sounds are building to a lyrical climax then forming a complex rhythm which defines the theme of an impetuous and dark opus from its beginning to its ending.

JEFFREY KOEPPER: Etherea (CD on Air Space Records)

This release from 2003 offers 72 minutes of dreamy electronic music.

Synthesist Koepper is accompanied on several tracks by EM pioneer Steve Roach, who also co-produced and mastered this album.

Crystalline electronics luxuriate amid fields of textural atmospherics. Keyboard chords waft on these undulant breezes like airborne strands of gemstones, twinkling and majestic in their slightly agitated serenity.

Layered tonalities ripple with dreamy elegance, merging to generate more regal harmonies, then separating to pursue their own individual sonic destinies. Flowing melodies instill a pacific calm as they explore astral paths of gracious distinction deep into the listener’s cerebellum.

Amiable keyboards introduce fluid riffs into the ethereal mix, flavoring the drifting flux with a tantalizing melodic deportment. Engaging loops establish a succulent medium for those riffs as they twirl and spiral in soporific patterns. Chords are sustained to create threads of grace running throughout the tuneage. Their complacent presence enhances the music’s overall soothing character.

Delicate e-perc swims through one track, describing languid rhythms that sparkle gently rather than provide any urgent momentum.

These compositions blend ambient soundscapes and sinuous melodies to produce structures of stately beauty. While the emphasis is generally on tranquil soundscapes, some of the tunes exhibit tasteful touches of utopian substance with gentle euphonies rising from the mellifluous pools.
decorative rule

Jeffrey Koepper and Jason Sloan - 19 April 2008

Renowned for his technical abilities and restorative powers, Jeffrey Koepper is distinguished for his work in maintaining and reviving vintage electronic music equipment. His music is realized through a mastery beyond the technical side of his craft. The works alternate between analogue bubbles and digital ice, and bright, smooth, spacious tonal landscapes. Applying his vast technical knowledge of music making equipment towards programming evocative ethereal sounds and strong rhythmic designs, Koepper produces music of impressive depth and rare intelligence. Koepper's third CD Sequentaria was released at his concert at The Gatherings.

His third CD is an ambitious tour of 1970s and '80s sequencer music - falling somewhere between classics like Poland, Oxygene and Equinoxe. Although inspired by the first era in electronic music we recognize as our own, Koepper is certainly willing to be unfaithful. The originals disappear into this artist's core and the music becomes his alone, continuing the audible thread established on his fine earlier CDs. Using classic analogue instruments, intertwining sequencer patterns head for the horizon while churning synth pads and buzzing keyboard melodies rise skyward. Electro-percussion approximates a samba rhythm section and ambles through a synthetic landscape rife with heady lead lines. Robo-drums march beneath swelling harmonies, chirping alien-choir and broad tunes spun on vintage gear. From brave anthems and galloping arpeggios all the way down to the introspective phasing of dual oscillators, Sequentaria shines brightly in the Spacemusic continuum.

I'd first seen Jeffery Koepper when he was playing in the duo Pure Gamma. It was at a rave in DC during the mid-1990s. Their music was an interesting mix of the current modern chillout scene and old school spacemusic. It wasn't long before Pure Gamma played a few concerts at The Gatherings (09.28.96 and 05.02.97). Koepper's set lasted about an hour and traversed much of the same territory as his last two outings (on STAR'S END and opening for Steve Roach). With an emphasis on works from his new CD "Sequentaria" (released at The Gatherings this night), the set began with some vintage phase shifted synth pads, heroic E-drums and dancing arpeggio scales. Drawing on the digital music era that spawned such albums as "Poland", "Logos" and "White Eagle"; Koepper ran through a fascinating range of sequencer based pieces - his full-throated lead lines soaring above. His stage set-up included several keyboards, among them vintage museum grade synhs right alongside the latest retro analogue technology. Between each of the rhythmic sections Koepper used these instruments to lull the audience with deep drones and airy synthetic harmonies and effects. To close out the night, Jeff played lovely chord progressions on the Prophet-8 over a simple run of tones from the arpeggiator on the Jupiter-6. Looking back, this was the most honest and intimate part of his performance.

JEFFREY KOEPPER Momentium (Air Space) • The sequencer. For many a synthesist worldwide, the ideal tool of choice whether in modes of composition, improvisation, or simply the right thing to strike up when the iron’s hot. Streams of repetitive, pre-programmed notes, endlessly undulating, seething, vibrating; 30 years ago, an entire reference point and "movement" within electronic music’s mainframe was built on the dull-black fascia of this piece of hardware, making instant percussionists and futuristic synth warriors out of way too large a segment of the population to be counted here. Post-70s, “traditional sequencer-based” music (that is, of the Schulze/Tangerine Dream argot) became cliché real fast—in lesser hands, the sequencer has been singlehandedly responsible for some of the most dreadfully mindless lathes ever cut. Relatively effortless programmability being the machine’s stock-in-trade has often run counter to the resultant sonic input; the casual knob twiddler sitting astride the module has tarnished so much of the sequencer’s reputation that what’s left of its value has been essentially rendered moot in many quarters. So the question is begged: what of Jeffrey Koepper, who splashes his equipment inventory across Momentium’s digipak backside loudly and proudly, working a tech-geek’s ardent fetish objects into maximum overdrive, the seqs enthusiastically sharing living space with a whole herd of Oberheims, Rolands, Arps, etc. Koepper’s new on the scene, record-wise—Momentium is only his second release, but it’s a whopper. Koepper wears his admiration (and obvious musicianly skill) for his sundry devices like a badge of honor. Unlike his European contemporaries, he’s neck-deep in love with his electronics and wants to take them places they’ve never gone before, using the principles of the past to catapult what the machines can do to shock the new. In other words, this is unabashed synth-sequencer music plain and simple, created sans pretension but keenly aware of history—and don’t forget the old maxim that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Koepper’s keen to foment what his analogue wizards are capable of. You might very well recognize motifs and languages spat out from a dozen nameless albums across the decades, but if a grindhouse guitar band can work the same tired riff ad infinitum, why can’t the able-bodied synthesist? Koepper does one better: he frees his mind so his ass can follow. The rhythmic thwack and pull of his duelling waveforms (cutting like scythes right from the opening “Byzantine Machine”) stimulate the pelvic as much as the parietal. Abetted both literally and philosophically by Steve Roach (who mastered the final product and provides some discrete textures and enhancements), Koepper knows how to make his machines rock: “Sequential Meditation,” all eleven minutes of it, is pure synthcore, the tense, slowly perambulating metallic patterns achieving an Escher-like fluidity that deftly mimics old-world fundamentalist trance music with equally hypnotic gravitas. Lock, load, and blast off. (DB)

If you take the best moments of TANGERINE DREAM, BRIAN ENO, ASHRA, KLAUSE
SCHULZE, STEVE ROACH, and MICHAEL GARRISON you would get no other
than the latest from Jeffrey Koepper. This is fantasic instrumental music of the
highest order that will take the listener on a journey full of exciting and spacious
audio adventures. If you long for a *GREAT* progressive/electronic/ instrumental cd,
this is it. One of the best in the genre to come out in a quite a long time!
Get this! It's GRADE A all the way!
jeremy morris jam records

"Momentium” is the second release of Jeffrey Koepper, who’s beautiful release “Etherea” was quite a success a couple of years ago.
Koepper’s musical adagio was and still is “to create the music of tomorrow with the technology of yesterday”, thereby referring to the bunch of vintage analogue instruments he applies for his music. As on the debut cd, the sounds on “Momentium” are lush, warm and organic, creating emotional evolving sound worlds which reach out to the listener in every track.
“Byzantine Machine” e.g is a great opener with lush vintage textures and sequencing, nicely continuing where “Etherea” left off.
Absolute highlights are found in the middle of the album by ways of “Sense of Time” (featuring tantalizing sequencing & fx’s) and the next track “Eternal Sea”. Both clearly demonstrate Jeffrey is pulling the best out of his gear. The icing on the cake of this recording comes from no other than Steve Roach, who was in charge of the final mastering and enhancements. Listening to these 67 minutes of analogue heaven is nothing but pure delight!

Bert Strolenberg

With the release of "Momentium", Jeffrey Koepper has done a wonderful job of blending analog synth stylings with contemporary ambient sensibilities. While many analog productions veer towards a more sequenced, vaguely inhuman sound, Koepper has been able to infuse his recordings with a more human feel, something a little more natural. The eight tracks on the disc show an excellent understanding of the use of sound to create environment and atmosphere, resulting in a very engaging and entertaining listening experience.
"Byzantine Machine" opens the disc, a majestic opener where thick analog pads play underneath crisp synth phrases and sequenced melodies. It's a very rich sound, very full with just the right hint of drama and strength. An excellent track to start the disc.
Track two, "Outside", starts with a more subtle beginning, a much more relaxed chill environment where slight melodies play over abstract tones and a series of sweeping pads. A wonderfully relaxed piece that makes me want to lie back in a chill out room and watch the world go by... Beautiful.
"Godspeed 2" picks up the pace with a nicely sequenced melody that dances around the soundfield while sounds drift throughout the track's space. Slight variations and volume changes build on ideas and draw the listener deeper into a web of tones and sounds. It's a wonderful piece that I've truly enjoyed exploring.
"Sense of Time" follows, a longer track than previous songs on the disc. It starts with a deep drone out of which a melodic synth phrase grows and develops, pulsing and moving like a living thing. Analog sweeps pass through the background and new melodies rise and fall to be replaced by new sounds. Certain sounds act as an anchor for the listener, sounds that remain constant throughout the piece, while changes in melody and time result in a constantly shifting soundscape. A lovely track that inspires further discovery.
"Eternal Sea" is another long form track, pairing steady synth pulses with wavelike drones. Change is more gradual in this track, more fluid and slow, with changes happening on a much more minimal level. I can't help but be drawn into this one, enveloped in its charms by the subtle ways that sound flows throughout the track.
"2600 A.D." is a very nice example of dark ambience with the suggestion of a post-apocalyptic wasteland created through a steady drone paired with repeated glitch-y sounds as if to imply a dark futurism. The darkness of this track leads directly into "Sequential Meditation" a much "brighter" track that by contrast suggests hope and possibility. Tones and phrases are more clearly defined and established in the soundfield and the listener is more able to connect with the piece as a result. The pair of tracks act as nice complements to each other, a nice study in differing but related sound environments.
"Awakening" closes the disc, a track that brings to mind an acceptance and awareness of one's surroundings, a feeling of becoming one with the environment in which we live. Pulse driven and sweep filled, it's a nice way to close the disc, a nice summation of the tracks that have come before it.
As stated earlier, on "Momentium" Jeffrey Koepper has done an excellent job of breathing life into his analog sounds resulting in a very organic and fluid disc that masterfully blends the organic and the synthetic. Without doubt "Momentium" is a fine disc well worth further investigation by both fans of analog keyboard work and mood based ambience. Highly recommended!
rik - ping things

Jeffrey obviously loves his analogue synths as he lists the ones used by each track. So for you 'gear heads' out there they include. PPGwave , loads of Arps, Rolands (including Jupiter 4, 6 and 8), Moog, Prophet 5, Oberheim, Elka etc etc etc.

Wonderful little melodic touches and twittering electronics are punctuated by dark pulses, then in enters a fantastic one hundred mile an hour sequence as the 'Byzantine Machine' explodes into life. A melodic rhythmic loop increases the oomph factor still further. 'Outside' cools things down somewhat with loads of slow atmospheric pads and strange alien noises. 'Godspeed 2' (dedicated to the memory of Michael Garrison) wastes no time is cranking up the sequences again (3 ARP ones this time!), each being deployed one after the other to create a very pleasurable wall of ever shifting pulsations. Sonic whooshes come and go over the top like spaceships flying low above our heads. 'Sense of Time' again uses cosmic 'twitters' to great effect then in come the sequences again in very 'Rubycon' fashion. Vast powerful stabs add to the excitement as yet more lines of bubbling mayhem spew forth. I'm losing count of the number of sequencer lines and yet more seem to come, all shifting around each other. A cracking lead line joins in the fray. What an awesome track. The aural equivalent of a nuclear reactor going to meltdown!

'Eternal Sea' starts with an incredibly deep bass sequence, other notes sort of fizzing from the edges. It's all brooding ominous stuff. Another sequence joins the first, itself oozing menace. Percussion is added. It's as if energy is rising like solar flares, escaping a sphere or forecfield that isn't up to containing such a pulsating mass of energy. '2600 A.D.' is a short cosmic collage of electronic whooshes, gurgles and twitters which I bet was great fun to do. It acts as an introduction to the awesome 'Sequential Meditation' which continues straight on without a break. A heavy four-note sequence is initially the main feature but before long more sequences come to join it. It all morphs wonderfully, little percussive detail and electronic effects coming and going in the background. As the track progresses things become increasingly intense. It is a track with real venom and attitude.

We follow straight through to 'Awakening' which effectively acts as the third part of an almost twenty-five minute piece. The main sequence now develops a sort of skip to its step whist melodic runs of notes playfully dart in and out of the other pulsations. Fans of seventies style sequencer music will just love this CD. (DL)

Momentium
Air Space Records (2006)

The use of older “retro” synthesizers is enjoying a comeback in electronic music right now. Everyone wants to use moogs and minimoogs and to plug into the “warm” sounds of analogue equipment (or digital pseudo-analogue). Jeffrey Koepper was ahead of the curve on this movement, as evidenced by his excellent debut CD, Etherea. Momentium, his sophomore effort, follows some of the same pathways that Etherea did, but it places more emphasis on rhythmic sequencer-type “Berlin school” music. Of course, like some other artists (e.g. fellow Americans Paul Ellis and Craig Padilla and Europeans such as Gert Emmens), Koepper is not aiming merely to copy the sounds of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, but to expound on the genre of music the two pioneers more or less founded. He does so with style, pizzazz and plenty of technical chops. If you’re a fan of this type of EM, Momentium will hook you immediately, starting off with the high energy percolating “Byzantine Machine” which builds from a slow sedate opening to an uptempo rapid-fire sequence fest with multiple lines all racing towards the song’s conclusion. The music reminded me of Tangerine Dream from their soundtrack era of Thief, Risky Business and Miracle Mile.

The next song “Outside,” is the only real “ambient” selection on the album (unlike Etherea which featured a number of ambient and spacemusic drifters), but it’s a beaut, comprised of shadowy washes, strange background textures and spacy effects, eerie drones and tones, and an overall sensation of undulation. On the third cut (“Godpseed 2,” which is dedicated to the late Michael Garrison), we’re right back into bouncy rhythmic EM territory, but this time the sound is bit more contemporary (to a degree) sounding somewhat like Todd Fletcher a.k.a. psychetropic blended with Jarre (but less melodic than the latter) and, of course, Garrison himself. The mood of this song is refreshingly optimistic (a rarity for this kind of music, and another nod to Garrison, whose music was frequently of a positive nature).

Of the remaining five tracks, only one is less than nine minutes long, that being the short “2600 A.D.,” an odd little number comprised of electronic bursts, weird SF/outer space noises, and little melody or musicality. The other four selections offer variations of long-form Germanic or retro-future EM. The first two of these (“Sense of Time” and “Eternal Sea”) open with synthesizer washes, textures, and chords before a sequence merges and infuses each song with its rhythmic aspect and tempo as well as some assorted solos scattered throughout each cut. “Sense of Time” is higher in energy, while “Eternal Sea” is closer to midtempo and doesn’t take as long to build up a head of steam.

“Sequential Meditation” pulses (at a midtempo pace) nicely from beginning to end of its near twelve-minute duration, as Koepper layers assorted synths on top of the bedrock sequence. However, it does get a little monotonous at times, at least I thought so. The song segues seamlessly into the album closer, “Awakening” which slowly transforms itself, going from the anchoring rhythmic sequence of the previous cut to a more active and lively collection of sparkling synths, floating chords, buzz-sawing textures, and star-shower sequences twinkling throughout the soundfield.

While I would’ve preferred more of a balance between ambient/spacemusic tracks and the rhythmic/Berlin-esque ones, Momentium is still a winner, provided you enjoy a steady dose of this type of EM. The disc was mastered and “enhanced” by Steve Roach (who did the same for Etherea), so engineering and production is virtually flawless. Momentium is a worthy addition to the field of retro/contemporary EM and if you count yourself a fan of that genre, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Bill Binkelman
Music reviewer for New Age Reporter
and
Producer/Host
Wind and Wire
KFAI
Minneapolis, MN

Jeffrey Koepper is no newcomer to the business having been releasing material since 1985 in various groups and collaborations. This CD fulfils his aim to create a contemporary development employing vintage equipment. Those appreciating classic equipment will appreciate the use of "instruments by Oberheim, Arp, Sequential Circuits, Moog, PPG, Emu, Roland". Tangerine Dream fans will note familiar elements to this music, yet Steve Roach listeners will also find hints of modern ambient influence. Indeed Steve Roach is credited not only with mastering and 'enhancements', but he also contributed to the content of a number of pieces.

Eight pieces of pure synthesiser music performed on vintage equipment, rooted in the Berlin school aesthetic with an eye on the future. Momentium has a clean sound with emphasis on rippling sequencer patterns and evolving rhythmic arrangements. Variations in intensity, cycle elements, or melodic overlays lead the compositions onward, the interplay of layered sequences introducing a fascinating complexity at times. There are some ambient passages, such as the swirling 'Outside' where smooth pads and harmonious drones dominate, in other places pools of electronic mist and sonic turbulence boil and roll. In general the beats used on most tracks are somewhat underplayed, subtle structures playing second fiddle to rhythmic tone elements, maintaining a spacey elegance that ranges from warm themes into ashen, shadowy mystery.

As strong as Koepper's 2003 debut Etherea was, he raises the bar considerably on his sophomore release Momentium. "Byzantine Machine" features wonderful sequencing and deep pulsing bass, a cross between Tangerine Dream during their early 80s heyday and the early sequencer-based works of Steve Roach like Empetus and Now/Traveler. Melody and movement are balanced harmoniously. "Outside" is filled with far-away dreaminess and warmth. Deep space bleeps and blips are added, along with a softly cascading clicking pattern. "Godspeed 2" moves along playfully with bubbly percussion and bright synths. Each piece develops just so, with perfect pacing and panache. "Sense of Time" is another active piece, and sounds not unlike TD's Thief soundtrack with its chugging rhythms and edgy guitar-like synths. Sequencing is again first rate, looping hypnotically around itself. "Eternal Sea" is just as good if not a shade better, with a great pulsing bass line to drive things along. This is just fantastic classic Berlin school fare, very much like TD circa 1980-1984, but with a flair all its own, not sounding like any particular TD album or track from that period. The last two tracks merge seamlessly together as one gorgeous 20-minute epic of mid-tempo mesmerizing loops. As if all this great music weren't enough, gearheads will drool over the track-by-track listing on the back cover of all the equipment used. Momentium is exceptional from start to finish.
© 2006 Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

Working with museum-grade synthesizers and sequencers brings the realizations of Jeffrey Koepper all the closer to the electrical current at the source of all electronic music. His cache of late model gear operates at the mechanical level today's virtual modeling synthesizers attempt to recapture. Certainly Koepper's diagnostic familiarity with this equipment informs the music on Momentium. An interesting balance between sensibility, technology and technique, this album presents eight pieces which range from fluttering thought tones, to echoing synth pulses, to cerebral powered beatbox. Influence is an invisible shadow cast on this work, as Koepper is ever reverential to both the artists and engineers who pioneered the genre he now navigates within. His endless fascination with the sequencer, a device meant to provide a steady run of predetermined notes, dominates this disc. The interlacing latticework of patterns becomes an animated force carrying reverb laden harmonic figures into the foreground. Koepper's subtle real-time adjustments to timbre and counterpoint provides this work with enough variation to keep it out of the realm of minimalism while referencing this genre's pulsing motorlike motion and incrementally expansive growth. In his music, Koepper is seeking a sense of voyaging. Yet, as in all quality spacemusic endeavors, we do not leave the listening area. Momentium is a stationary adventure meant for the contemplative audience.
- Chuck van Zyl
STAR'S END

On his second CD, Jeffrey Koepper comes up with a disc full of surprises. "Etherea" was one of our favorite debuts a couple years ago, notable for its ability to continually take the listener right up to the threshold, and then to seemingly back off in ways that were extremely effective. With "Momentium," there are still subtleties in the music, but the tempos and rhythms are not part of that aspect, Much more sequencer-driven, dramatic and completely plugged into the electrical current at the source of current electronic music. His cache of late model gear including museum-grade synthesizers
and sequencers operates at the mechanical level today's virtual modeling synthesizers attempt to recapture. Certainly Koepper's diagnostic familiarity with this equipment underscores the tracks on Momentium, which presents eight pieces ranging from fluttering thought tones, to echoing synth pulses, to cerebral powered beatbox. Koepper is ever reverential to both the artists and engineers who pioneered the genre he now navigates. His fascination with the sequencer, a device meant to provide a steady run of predetermined notes, is what dominates this disc. The interlacing patterns become an animated force carrying reverb laden harmonic figures into the foreground. In his music, Koepper is seeking a sense of voyaging, and the ever-building momentum serves this well. Yet, as in all quality spacemusic endeavors, we do not travel so far as to leave the listening area. "Momentium" is a stationary, and momentary adventure which is aimed at and meant for the contemplative
audience that enjoys ambient space music, albeit with more beats than the norm, yet held in a container that does not stretch beyond its own self-imposed definition..
lloyd barde backroads music

If you long for the days of classic TD then MOMENTIUM is for you. Its dense layers
of neo-symphonic sound are accented by crisp sequences that will have your head pulsing in rhythm to the surging riffs. When you are about to fall over dizzy,
the sound then devolves once into the most exotic cerebral tone colors
you can imagine to cool you down.
EUROCK

Momentium is Koepper's new solo release after his debut CD ETHEREA. On this one he amps-up the energy with a flow of pieces created around the sequencer as a tool to give the music momentum. Koepper is a long-time proponent of analog and hardware synths, thus allowing his hands-on approach to become essential in shaping the flow as it occurs. The first track alone is worth the price of admission, calling up the ghosts of Tangerine Dream in their glory days. Warm tones and hypnotic patterns intermix into a fine result throughout the entire set. Steve Roach was integral in the final arrangement, mastering and finishing treatments of MOMENTIUM.

This east coast synthesist uses all vintage analog gear on his latest recording which is a sequencer delight echoing the rhythmic works of tangerine dream, michael hoening, & ashra. highly recommended.
analogue haven

Jeffrey Koepper, Momentium

Analogue devotee Jeffrey Koepper unleashes a storm of classic-style electronica on his new release, Momentium. Unabashedly old-school, the disk revels in the hypnotic chatter of the sequencer, tinted with hand-touched chords, recalling every bit of Tangerine Dream idolatry ever committed to tape. Layer by programmed-synthesizer layer Koepper builds his tracks, like a hurricane picking up force off the coast until, in full-blown landfall, it hits with perfect force and a bank of keyboards are playing off each other’s robotic-perfection rhythms and tones. The disk open with “Byzantine Machine,” where thrumming bass chords accent a lightly Middle Eastern-flavored melody that soon takes urgency from the sequencer and we’re off. “Outside” pairs slowly shifting chords with bits of knob-twiddle nature-imitating sounds. (Woodpecker, anyone?) It’s the quietest of the tracks here, sort of a primer on the possibilities even old analogue systems present. Koepper immediately ups the beat with the short track “Godspeed 2,” which rolls a toe-tapping melody under the sequencer groove. Then it’s into the depths of “Sense of Time,” which enters on a rush of synthesized spacewind that gives way to somber bass tones—the slow buildup to another intense, densely packed ride. Its follow-up, “Eternal Sea,” takes much the same tack, rising up from low tones, adding higher pitches and ever more layers. Something about it, however, something almost indescribable, makes it feel richer and more hypnotic. Easily the best track on the disk. Then it’s back to the lab for the odd, experimental “2600 A.D,” four minutes of pure electronic sound-collage. (Is the “2600” a nod to Atari, Jeffrey?) “Sequential Meditation” returns to the layers-upon-layers motif, but it’s an easier-paced work that doesn’t build to a frenzy. Rather, it just gets thicker and more intimate as it goes along. Momentium closes with the airy bounce of “Awakening,” a potently upbeat track with a slight Asian flair. Admittedly, there’s a degree of sameness of Koepper’s work—sequencer runs don’t vary all that much in the first place—but his work with the old gear is masterful, and his commitment to it is laudable. Considering the technical limitations imposed on him by his chosen instruments, the music Koepper produces is consistently interesting and imbued with a strong sense of creating aural imagery and emotion. (Finishing touches by Steve Roach assist the process.) For listeners like myself, fed on a diet of this kind of stuff at an early age, it’s a well-made homage to the foundation of the genre.

Koepper's first release, 2003's Etherea, is also well worth checking out. More strong sequencer-based pleasure, including Koepper's signature track, "Between Dreams."

Jeffrey sent me this CD out of the blue; I'd never heard of him, even though he's a homeboy from Baltimore. This is an album of electronic space-music and it's a good one. He's definitely influenced by the classics, but he also has a more modern sound mixed in, which makes this release more than just a homage to the classics. Really nice if you like this sound! "Jeffrey Koepper has been creating electronic music since 1985. He has released material in the past with the groups Pure Gamma and Immortal. Etherea and Momentium, both produced with ambient legend Steve Roach, are his full length solo releases. His influences by early electronic musicians Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze along with Steve Roach will be felt in his music of warm pulsing meditations, sequential rhythms and serene soundscapes. These influences were the spark that ignited his creative spirit. True to his roots, Koepper uses a variety of analogue synthesizers and analogue sequencers to create his evolving sound-world sculptures. He strives to create the music of tomorrow with the technology of yesterday. His desire is to continue in the fine tradition of classic electronic music while bringing forth his unique approach of creating warm, emotionally crafted music." [Air Space]
wayside music

Etherea is an analogue masterpiece created in today's digital domain. Jeffrey Koepper Created these atmospheres and soundscapes on a variety of electronic instruments and devices -- both digital and analogue. (Steve Roach calls him "Analogue Jeff.") His goal was to create an analogue sound in his Analogueland Studios. Steve mastered it in The TimeRoom and is listed as the co-producer. This is a delightful set of retro space music compositions that stand proudly with the best of the Berlin school -- 1970's, 1980's, 1990's and the new millennium. Jeff's style and technique allow this adventure to unfold and evolve at its own pace. He does not force the issue. Deep drones, dark atmospheres and heavy sequences surround and interact with the listeners' psyches. In that regard, this CD offers more than traditional electronica. It has psychoacoustic and psychoactive properties that provoke and evoke deep responses. This is an exceptional and charming CD!
~ Jim Brenholts

With an able assist from Steve Roach (who did the final arranging and mastering as well as adding "xpander atmospheres" to some tracks) Jeffrey Koepper's Etherea is a wonderful ambient/EM recording that delightfully blends warm analog/retro electronic music with state of the art ambient and spacemusic elements to create a 21st century hybrid that should offer strong appeal to fans of all the aforementioned genres. No doubt owing (at least partly) to Roach's involvement, the engineering and overall "sound" on this disc is impressive with a capital "I." The analog keyboards (be they the real thing or synthesized) glow with a warm naturalness and evoke pleasant nostalgia, as evidenced immediately on the opening track, "between dreams," which offers up assorted midtempo beats, floating keyboards, spacy synths (a la Jarre and others from that era), all gathered together in a celestial mixture of textures and rhythms. It's a truly outstanding way to start an album, and the entire disc holds one treasure after another. One of the things I came to admire most on this album was how imaginative Koepper was in balancing both the rhythmic tracks and the more free-form ambient ones, as well as the spacemusic side and the more EM-focused elements. At times, there is a strong European influence detected (not necessarily Berlin school, but sometimes English and French school, if there is such a thing). I certainly heard it on the opening track, as well as later on during the piece "timeless" which reminded me of David Wright in how Koepper blended melodic elements with more overt electronics. However, the artist also sometimes aims for the stars (i.e. spacemusic) such as on the cosmic-sounding "distant light," a fairly minimalist excursion into sustained minor key synth chords which slowly reverberate and sustain into an inky blackness. Stretched out over twelve-plus minutes, some artists would either let the music stagnate or purposelessly alter the motif for variety's sake. Koepper finds a middle ground and allows for minor deviations to keep listener interest up while maintaining continuity throughout the song. Other tracks worth special mention (the entire album is solid, though) include "ancient sunlight" (high-pitched retro synths undulate and pulse eventually morphing into a mildly propulsive Berlin-school number, with laser-zapping synths crisscrossing the soundfield), "passage" (which unfolds patiently and deliberately with musical elements reminiscent of John Carpenter's and Alan Howarth's soundtrack work, albeit in a non-foreboding vein), and the brooding "moments in time," (a rhythmic piece that bounces slow tempo bass synth beats against a wonderfully evocative lead keyboard line, evocative of cold and barren polar beauty). The CD concludes with the nearly fourteen-minute "while we sleep," as classic a combination of spacemusic and drifting EM/ambient as you will find these days. It's hard to believe Etherea wasn't received with more accolades and fanfare. It's astonishingly well-done, both from an artistic and an engineering standpoint. Even with all the assistance of Steve Roach, make no mistake about it - this is Koepper's music. I was hard pressed to recognize Roach's "touch," except for the meticulous mastering. Jeffrey Koepper has a bright future ahead of him, regardless if he walks the EM, the ambient, or the spacemusic path. They all lead the same place - outstanding music. Highly recommended!
info@windandwire.com
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MUSIC!

Jeffrey Koepper has a time machine in the basement of his trim Northeast Baltimore home. There's barely room to walk among all the light-blinking, knob-bedecked hunks of machinery. Miles of wires connect the contraptions, looping around the perimeter and sprawling along the ceiling overhead. Daunting electronic panels that wouldn't look out of place in a nuclear power-plant control room dominate one corner. Their switches read attack delay sustain release and envelope transient generator. When the lanky 35-year-old fires up his equipment and starts tapping some of the thousands of keys, I'm suddenly transported back to the early 1980s. I'm once again a skinny college kid with a penchant for thin ties and hair mousse. No, I'm not talking H.G. Wells here, but Gary Numan and Thomas Dolby. For Koepper is a synthesizer player, collector, repairman, and rabid enthusiast. His basement is brimming with keyboards, modulators, drum machines, and sequencers dating from the golden age of wires: the analog era, before digital technology reduced music to a series of ones and zeroes. "Most of this stuff is from the late 1970s to early '80s," Koepper says. "I'm a purist. The sound quality you get from modern equipment is nowhere near this stuff. This equipment has an organic, flowing nature to it. To me, digital sounds hard and cold and sterile." What you don't see down in this sonic cellar are any computers. Koepper wrinkles up his nose at there very thought of having a monitor and mouse down here. "I should put up a sign reading no computers," he says. Koepper doesn't even know how many synths he has. Dozens, easy. They're literally stacked up everywhere, and most are hooked into a bank of sound processors and a huge mixing board. He bought his first in 1985--a Crumar Spirit, still plugged in and playable--and has been accumulating them ever since. The most common makes are Moog (which rhymes with "vogue"), ARP, Sequential Circuits, and Oberheim. Since, as Koepper explains, "anything can wrong with them at anytime," along the way he has become a self-taught synth technician. It's even turned into a sideline business. Some replacement parts are still being manufactured, but many are not. "You have to have a keyboard junkyard," Koepper says, nodding to the heap of forlorn synths stacked in a corner of his workroom--all giving up their capacitors and transistors so that others can keep playing. Koepper, who studied film at Towson University (then Towson State), is also a self-taught musician. He walks over to one of his myriad keyboards and effortlessly taps out the bouncy little principal riff from Gary Numan's 1979 hit "Cars" (perhaps the first synth-heavy new-wave hit on these shores). He's been in bands since age 15, recording and playing out with outfits such as Social Skill, Immortal, Limited Express, System X, and Still Life. Presently he is teamed up with an old high-school friend, guitarist/bassist/vocalist Piotr Wolff, to form Machine Age. A tap of a button sends a song from the group's recent EP filling the basement. And back I go in time, once again, to my dorm room. All the Big '80s touches are there: the shimmering, jittery guitar and snaking bass lines, the plaintive vocals, and, of course, the rich bed of swirly, whirly synth sounds. It's Flock of Seagulls meets Ultravox meets Human League meets Depeche Mode meets, well, 2004. (Listen for yourself at www. machine-age.net) "The sound is definitely coming back," Koepper says, adding that a full-length Machine Age CD, as well as club appearances are in the offing. But there's really more to Koepper sonic tastes than what he terms "early-'80s electro art rock." There is also the less dancey, more trancey "space music," wherein his equipment is called on to create moody ambient soundscapes. His heroes in this latter style include Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre. Notable ambient artist Steve Roach helped Koepper produce his first CD in the genre, last year's Etherea. While Koepper clearly feels the analog synths are undergoing a sonic resurgence, he dates the equipment's initial demise to 1983, when Yamaha released its DX7 digital synthesizer. This very popular keyboard lacked the proliferation of output-altering knobs, which are the hallmark of analog equipment--and, Koepper asserts, the source of its strength. These knobs, you see, are twirled and tweaked in combination to create custom sounds. "When they took the knobs away, everybody just played presets," Koepper says. "Everything sounded the same. You could buy a cartridge with sounds on it and just pop it in. What's really important to me [is] making my own original sounds. It's almost like audio sculpture. It's in the moment--if I change the knobs, that sound is gone forever." As it turns out, Koepper's in-house subterranean synthesizer playpen may also soon be gone forever. In the very near future he faces the arduous task of moving all his equipment to a rented studio space. His machines make sounds both time-warping and otherworldly, but they're banging up against something grounded and practical. "My wife," Koepper says with a slight grin, "wants to make a family room down here."

© 2003 Baltimore City Paper. All Rights Reserved.

Jeffrey Koepper "Etherea"

stunning, enchanting, inspired.
slowly building, growing, taking shape, "Etherea" by Jeffrey Koepper is a fine example of organic ambience similar in style to the work of Tangerine Dream. produced by ambient pioneer Steve Roach and using a variety of classic analog equipment, "Etherea" is a stunning journey through almost living soundscapes.
from the opening tones of track 1 "Between Dreams" you can feel the pulse of the music, gaining form from the addition of instrumentation and melody. melodic elements develop, patches rise and fall in strength, it's a beautiful thing. track 2 "Distant Light" relies on a more subtle, more traditional form, where slow pads drift across the soundscape, pulling like waves at the listener's conciousness. track 3 "Timeless" blends the two styles in an elegant mixture of melody and dreamscape ambience. lovely work. skip ahead to track 7, "Passages", where percolating tones play on the periphery of awareness, while a subtle droning melody floats underneath. ahhhhhh...
what more can be said? the artistry in this disc is undeniable. one can't help but be swept up in it's charms, enraptured by it's beauty. check it out for yourself, i'm sure you'll agree.
rik - ping things

Jeffrey Koepper - Etherea
(self released cd ; 2003)
Jeffrey Koepper, who has send me his first full lenghth cd just a short
while ago, wrote he has been making electronic music since 1985 and has
played in 2 groups, resp. Pure gamma and Immortal before starting this
solo-effort. During these years he has collected a proper & varied
collection of analoque devices and fine synths to finally create this
stunning debut. Etherea offers in depth positive as reflective
soundscape-textures in which a lot of emotion is involved. Warm, soft
pulsating and cyclic elements are featured throughout the whole recording,
in which slowly evolving patterns are obvious. Introspective soundwashes
keep rolling on and on such as featured in the morphing 2nd track Distant
Light which makes you wander off to some milestone ambientalbums of e.g.
Thom Brennan or Steve Roach (Structures... or Quiet Music). Jeffrey really
knows how to treat his sophisticated equipment as he leads the way for over
70 minutes into a vast landscape of serene and meditative textures. This
delicately composed music easily carries you away into some distant
(dream)lands, a perfect drift-off making you feel at ease within mintes. The
album was superbly enhanced and spatialised by ambientguru Steve Roach,
which makes the recording sparkle all the way through.
All in all, this heartfelt composed CD is an absolute must-have for every
self-respected ambientfan.
Bert Strolenberg
Klem Magazine
The Netherlands

Jeffrey Koepper is one of Baltimore's best kept secrets when it comes to superb
electronic music. On his first release "Etherea" one can hear the finest moments of
Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Kelvin Smith, and Steve Roach. The sound is highly
atmospheric, highly ambient, and more about vibration than it is about melody.
In short, this is one excellent chill out cd! Highly recommended

jeremy morris jam records

Jeffrey Koepper, though not entirely new to the space/ambient scene,
offers his essential debut release here with "Etherea" which is
loaded with reflective soundscape-textures in which a lot of emotion
is involved. Warm, pulsating and cyclic elements are featured
throughout the whole recording, with slowly evolving patterns and
drifting drone effects used for balance. He places his music in
tracks of varying tempos, with reference points that might easily be
Thom Brennan, Giles Reaves or Steve Roach. Jeffrey's delicately
composed music easily carries you away into some distant
(dream)lands, with a perfect opening to make you feel at ease within
minutes. The album was superbly enhanced and spatialized by ambient
guru Steve Roach in the Timeroom, which makes the recording sparkle
all the way through. The manner in which Koepper keeps bringing the
listener to the threshold of more active ambient sounds and then
backing off into more serene spaces provides a unique artistic
counterpoint that is used very effectively. His high-grade equipment
and technology is put to great use and effect, never sacrificing one
degree of the human element. For space fans, this new CD is a must.
Along with Jon Hopkins (on Just Music) we are going to have some
tough competition for debut of the year in 2003.
Lloyd Barde
c/o Backroads Music
www.backroadsmusic.com

If you are in search of space (music), then this album will teleport you to
the furthest reaches of the universe. Co-produced by Steve Roach, the sound of
ETHEREA is deep and expansive with rich layers of synthetics layering and
overlapping mystically, enhanced by a multitude of undulations and imaginative
sequences intertwining. The sounds and effect conjured up reflect a myriad of
tone colors from delicately soft to dark and primal. This is ambient space music
at its best.
Arhie Patterson
EUROCK.com

Subject: Etherea by Jeffrey Koepper
Time: 11:46 am.
Jeffrey Koepper is a new artist to me, though according to
his press release he has been making electronic music sice the 1980s. His
first solo CD, Etherea came as quite a pleasant surprise for me. Jeffrey has an
analog synth collection to die for, and he's unafraid to use all of it--I've a
feeling gearheads will enjoy this music on a completely different level than I
am capable of. Even if you are musically ignorant, as I am, you will find more
than enough to enjoy in these sublimely textured seventy-two minutes.
Take a deep breath of Etherea, and you will find yourself entranced by
carefully woven sequences, light, warm atmospherics, and cascading, slow
melodies. The first track, "Between Dreams" marries slow sequences with "breathing synth" lines, creating an effect not unlike entering the dreams of the title. The
track builds sonically, gradually introducing some rich bass tones and
electronic percussion, reminding me strongly of many tracks on Thom Brennan's
Mountains album. As we'll hear, much of Etherea would not be out of place on a Steve
Roach or Brennan CD. This is not idle copy-catting--Koepper does it just as well
as these two classic artists. So well, in fact, that I feel his tracks are
often indistinguishable from similar work by those I've mentioned. A perfect
example of this, track two, "Distant Light," sees Koepper operating in the
desert ambiance of Roach releases like Quiet Music and Western Spaces (minus the
quite newage sounds from Kevin Braheny). I also detect a very pleasant
similarity to A Produce's epic track "A Smooth Surface." It's easy to imagine drifting
off to sleep with this track, or perhaps gazing upon a static landscape that
appears to shift ever so slowly the longer you look at it.
Koepper's interest in rhythmic sequencers comes to the fore during tracks
three and four--both recall flighty drifts along azure skies or crystal-clear
ocean surfaces. Track three, "Timeless" reminds me of Michael Hoenig's classic
work; sequenced and possessing a liquidity unusual for this electronic
sub-genre. "Spiraling" follows these two tracks, reminding the listener that
ambient drift can be very, very trippy as well. Fantastic spiraling synths swirl about
the listener, rather like a momentary drop in altitude, following the warm air
currents of the total album. Fans of David Parsons' atmospheric driftwork will
enjoy "Silent Age" as Koepper pilots us ever higher to more mysterious
terrain--is that subtle phasing I hear? Perhaps there is an ancient settlement
resting atop the mountain range we drift above, but it is difficult to say
whether or not it is inhabited. Track seven, "Passages," was a slight misstep for me;
the sequences were a bit too metronomic and familiar. I found that they
detracted from the fine atmospheres of the track, instead of propelling them
forward over the six and a half minute duration. Tracks eight and nine follow a
similar slowly sequenced, and fairly static mien, working as a slow, pleasurable
drift into the climax: "While We Sleep." Unquestionably, "While We Sleep" is one
of the strongest atmospheric floaters I've heard since Jonn Serrie's classic
" Stratos." Almost fourteen minutes of enthusiastic abandonment on waves of
hypnogogic ether. This track stands alongside classic ambient atmospheres in its
depth, foggy ambiguity, and sheer beauty. The misty ambience is almost
palpable. It's quite easy to imagine oneself in nearly any introspective
situation hearing this track and feeling an overwhelming sense of pure
mind-drift--certainly a calling card of the best ambient music has to offer.
Frankly, this final tour de force is worth the price of admission alone.
As a totality, Koepper has created one of the most intriguing and
professional-sounding debuts I've ever heard. Also of note is the added cache of
crisp, clean Steve Roach production work on the disc. This is the kind of release that
will appeal to fans of both Berlin School electronic and the light
stratospheric forms of ambient music, rather like Craig Padilla's fine Vostok.
I cannot recommend Koepper's CD highly enough to fans of Roach or Thom Brennan. As a whole, the music, professional packaging and art, and the excellent production
make Etherea an ambient debut not to be missed. I've a feeling this is an
artist to expect great things from in future.
Etherea is released on Koepper's own imprint Air Space Records, and is
available on his site.
Brian Bieniowski
windandwire.com

Every week I normally receive about 2 to 5 demo or preview CD's. And
unfortunately most of them are "or" to New Age, to badly played or recorded
(false notes and out of timing) so that most of them are not entered in our
catalog. But every now and then there is a CD that's really nice to listen
to, so in the coarse of time we did find some nice gems of electronic music.
So as a reminder for you of our (Kees included) efforts to get these new
artist in our catalog... Here are a few names from the past:
Alpha Wave Movement, Thomas Berkley, Robert Carty, Meg Bowles, Hagen.
And this week I received a CD that knocked me out of my office chair:
" Etherea" (ok, I had my doubts to when I saw the title :-) from Jeffrey
Koepper. Jeffrey's music style reminds me the most of the soundscapes from
Steve Roach and my own CD "Ghost of a Mist".
Especially the opening track is from a unique beauty.
The CD was mastered by no one else than "Steve Roach" and Jeffrey, who has a
great collection of older analog and newer synthesizers that makes him get
the music just right. This is his first CD but I'm already looking forward to what he will do in the future. So if you like ambient soundscapes, quiet music, slow space stuff.
If you like Steve Roach or if you like "Ghost of a mist".
If you like great electronic music.This is the one you should get.
" Etherea" by Jeffrey Koepper. The best new entry in the Groove catalog this
year. (in my opinion of coarse)
Ron Boots
grooveunlimited.com

Renowned for his technical abilities and restorative powers, Jeffrey Koepper
has become distinguished for his work in maintaining, reviving and often
performing miracles on vintage electronic music equipment. Elsewhere, he is
(along with Kelvin Russell) known as half of Pure Gamma, the duo that brought
together the old school ambience of the '70s with the techno/chillout culture of
the '90s. In 2003, Koepper has finally popped his head up from behind his vast
museum's worth of gear and presented the world with a long-awaited studio album.
On Etherea (72'12"), Koepper demonstrates a mastery beyond the technical side
of his craft. The 10 tracks alternate between the analogue bubbles and digital
ice of the American synth 'n sequencer revival of the '80s - and bright,
smooth and spacious tonal landscapes where wide swaths of stereo phasing, thin
lines of sawtooth buzzes and soft clouds of revererant strings paint the air
with an enduring ambience. Building on familiar Spacemusic forms, figures and
themes, the genre calls for Koepper to add that immeasurable factor: his own
individual human component - which ignites the sonic imagery of his music. With
Etherea, "Analogue Jeff" the gearhead is transformed into Jeffrey Koepper the
artist. By applying his vast technical knowledge of music making equipment
towards programming beautifully evocative ethereal sounds and strong rhythmic
designs, Koepper has put together an album of impressive depth and rare
intelligence.
- Chuck van Zyl
STAR'S END
1 June 2003

Jeffrey Koepper "Etherea"
(Air Space Records, 2003)
10 tracks, 72.12 mins
Who is Jeffrey Koepper? First off, Steve Roach considers him worthy of
co-producing his CD, so that alone grabs attention. I'm happy to say that the
music on the disc does as well. It might seem a slight to describe the opening track "Between Dreams" as pleasant, but I mean that in the best sense of the word. It is simple and elegant, a pleasure to listen to. The themes running through it remind me of stronger material by the likes of Pete Namlook and Alpha Wave Movement. The disc is aptly named, as both the title and the music within conjure up images of light, of heaven, of space, of dreams. "Distant Light" borrows a trick from Steve's Structures From Silence. Long notes hang in the airand dissipate into nothingness, returning only after a second or two of silence leaves echoes of the previous note hanging in the subconscious. This is perhaps the most delicate track on a disc full of wondrous subtleties. "Timeless" sounds across a deep expanse, then a temperate sequence carries it off withease. "Ancient Sunlight" cavorts along brightly, with layers of sounds vaguely suggestive of the opening track of Roach's Dreamtime Return. Occasionally thereis the slightest touch of melancholy, as on "Silent Age" and "Moments In Time." However, the disc as a whole is so enjoyable it's hard to imagine finding much to get down about. The meditative 14-minute epic "While We Sleep" is an appropriately soporific finish to this ethereal journey. Sweet dreams.
© 2003 Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

Jeffrey Koepper has the requisite germanic name to ignite the fires of true
synthafficianados. Neu! Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream can be felt on this.
Fear the power of the moog! Etherea is the title, and it has ambience. It is
not ambient. There is a difference. This man is a master.
Music Monthly newspaper, reviewer Laurin Wollan