Inkeys

16/08/2026

Available www.spacemirrors.bandcamp.com and Ebay + Discogs

11/08/2026

Just recently Serge Leroy, known best for being a member of French band Lightwave, sent me a section of a concert from 40 years ago, that may well get a release in the near future - I did a review for him and, at his request, am including it here......
LIGHTWAVE – T4
Ninety minutes of previously unissued music from the original line-up of this legendary French electronic band is enough to have anyone's synth taste buds salivating at the thought, and this does not disappoint.
Opening with as charming and calming a cosmic drift as you could hope to hear, you're immediately plunged into a universe of soothing space music, with a central texture around which assorted electronic comets, swoop and soar. Slowly, the shape and tone of the lead layer, goes down a notch and morphs into a slowly flowing cosmic void that's as slow motion melodic as it is spacey, and the effect is utterly sublime. The music never stands still – the whole soundscape changes shape as it travels, ensuring that you devote your full attention to the sonic delights that unfold before you.
Then, around 8 minutes in, a higher scale sequencer rhythm emerges from the depths, and the whole canvas changes completely as the lone rhythm rings out before the strings return and a more bass-oriented synth rhythms stands alongside the sequencer work, only then for a seriously eerie fog-bank of electronic ocean, to flow slowly into view as the soundscape become altogether busier, a mix of serene and rhythmic, almost Klaus Schulze-esque, but more interesting. This patterns progresses and changes, with even a high register lead synth emerging just to add to the comparison, as it all travels wondrously forward.
Just shy of 18 minutes, the rhythms subside and a string-like synth flow moves effortlessly into view. Slowly but surely, over the next 6 minutes, the soundscape changes, so that by the 25 minute point, you're in a darker electronic universe where the music shimmers,, swoops overhead and pulsates to unnerving effect. Thereafter, 6 minutes of peace spreads across the electronic landscape that seemingly stretches for miles, a synth serenity that continues to just short of 38 minutes, whereupon the electronic darkness descends once again, only this time it's more like some strange, out-of-time-and-space factory with distant wheezes and clangs, as you are alone, wandering the corridors of its electronic cosmos. Eerie space synth music at its finest.
Around 50 minutes in, and the brightness returns as various layers, textures, pitches and patterns of cosmic synths glide and flow over and around one another to breathtaking effect. Again, the Schulze comparison is valid only here things are always developing, never repetitive.
At 63 minutes, everything subsides to leave a stuttering lead synth to provide a cyclical rhythm of cosmic sparsity which circles round and pulsates, leading into another musical universe where all manner of synth layers shine like the sun, but instead of melodies, they coalesce into a reflective lake of cosmic bliss, above which a lone synth melody, slowly glides. With all manner of extra layers and textures added, it is this slowly flowing body of electronic exploration which takes the listener to an appropriately spacey end point, and you forget that you've been absolutely mesmerised for nearly an hour and a half by some of the finest cosmic music you'll hear.

11/08/2026

JIM OTTAWAY – Treasures Of Light
Album
71m
https://jimottaway.bandcamp.com
New studio album from the Australian synth wizard revealing 12 tracks ranging from 5 to just over 7 minutes, and it has to be said that it's been produced, mixed and recorded to perfection – the sound comes right out as though he was there in your living room.
Musically, there's a wealth of styles on here, but all connected by one thing – melody!!
If you want a reference point then you're in the realms of late eighties Tangerine Dream, only what you'd expect from a solo musician as opposed to a band, but all the hallmarks are there.
A deceptively simple track such as the slow and languid “Climbing Rainbows”, with its expansive strings, gently flowing electro-percussive rhythm, smoke-rings of melodies and all around a sea of lead and cosmic synths that generate an expanse of desert-like proportions, and a track that goes straight to your heart, every time you hear it.
In contrast, “Dreams And Visions”, although at a similarly slow pace, could not be more different – starker, stripped down and based around a stuttering, ascending and descending electro-percussive & synth rhythm, with a distant rhythmic throb in the background, has a sea of sparse melodies, circulating all around, changing shape and yet it's all so vibrant and engaging, the use of delicate layering, a thing of beauty.
“Radiance Of Truth” is in pure Tangerine Dream-lite territory, with soaring melodies, rolling rhythms and cosmic backdrops, while “Strange Paradox” is altogether darker, more menacing, with the rhythms at the bass send as sequencers ring out and stabs of electro-percussives rattle around as a lead synth cycles around and all manner of crystal clear and brief synth embellishments dance around the central framework, the track ending up a lot less dark than it began.
The album opener, sets sail on a fast-paced series of sequencer rhythms, as a contrasting and stretched-out synth melody, waves gently from the shore. Slowly it evolves, with layers added and subtracted, but overall, continuously fuller-sounding, with assorted melody lines appearing along the way, all extremely pleasant and showing, right from the start, the sort of music that follows.
Overall, if it's melodies and tunes you want, all wrapped up in a variety of pleasing rhythms and multi-layered tunes and backdrops, it's a sea of consistent enjoyment, from start to finish.

I am an international award-winning Australian composer and recording artist. My music could be described as melodic/rhythmic instrumental electronic music. My musical styles include space ambient, electronica, new age, ambient, soundscape and music for film. My goal is to take you, the listener, on...

13/07/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLisGowo5ws&t=8s

13/07/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfUpo8Npjn8&t=335s

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

13/07/2026

Reminder time.......

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

10/07/2026

ALISA CORAL's NEUTRON STAR – Diving Into The Unknown Album Remastered
Superb sounding reissue of the debut synthesizer album from the multi-genre musician, Alisa Coral. With 7 tracks between 3 and 29 minutes in length, it is purely synths and very much in the vein of Klaus Schulze, but whwereas he came from a more “classical” background, Ms Coral comes at it from a more “space-rock” influenced manner.
The opening track sets the scene with a gorgeous full-sounding melody played on echoed electric piano over a repeating cyclical synth figure underneath, as assorted electronics sparkle and shine overhead. Then it's into the near 29 minute “Neutron Star”, which opens in cosmic symphonic mode as synths slowly glide over one another then at the 4 minute point, the music becomes starker, more drone-like, echoed, only then for the phased melody line to appear before a more cloud-like gathering of electronics shimmers and rises. Right through to the 20 minute point, the synths shimmer, ooze, bubble, revolve and change shape in emotional states that range from eerie to exploratory. A brief section of cosmic music and the appearance of a gently rhythmic bass synth, sees the track fly slowly into the infinite depths of space.
You might expect a near 20 minute track called “Black Hole” to be even more weird but instead this is a much more reflective slice of cosmic music, with sparkles and cyclical rhythms gently lapping the shores of stretched out melodies, drones and assorted electronic layers, always travelling, always changing.
The next three tracks could well have fitted onto something like Tonto's “Zero Time” album, with a more melodic approach and a wondrously airy feel to the synths that unfold on each piece. The final, near 10 minute track, kind of sums up the album as a whole only more full-sounding than the lengthy tracks but equally exploratory with its melodic content.
Overall, a synth album that's oddly familiar and strangely attractive.

03/07/2026

PAUL HASLINGER & CHRISTIAN WITTMAN – Mallarme
Inspired by what I gather to be a 19th century wordsmith by the name of Mallarme, the ex-Tangerine Dream and ex-Lightwave musicians have come up with three compositions lasting between 17 and 21 minutes featuring remarkably beautiful music.
“Un Coup De Des” opens with a slowly unfolding piano melody that kinda lulls you into a false sense of security, since you may be expecting it to lead into something more solid, but instead, it evolves into this electronic cosmic fogbank. Right up to the 13 minute point, layers of synths, wash over each other and it's all about texture, space and minimalism. Just over 13 minutes, the piano re-appears, but in a much darker setting as brief burts of drones come from below while the pianist is clearly not being paid by the note, with single chords allowed to rise up and slowly dissipate like smoke rings into a blue sky. Thus takes you to the final 90 seconds whereupon this wondrous choral section appears briefly- and it ends.......only to move straight into “Jamais N'abolira” which, at almost the same length as the first piece, is.....well......another lengthy track of non-rhythmic, non-melodic, textural, spacey, cosmic electronic music. As you'd expect, time and motion move very slowly in this universe, as synth textures, layers and sonic explorations mover over, under and around each other, and it kinda comes across as a 21st century answer to Tangerine Dream's “Zeit”, only more minimal.
The final track, “Le Hasard”, is again, another 17+ minute exercise in cosmic textural music, only here there's a bit more of an edge, a lot more darkness and , in places, louder, as the two musicians continue their electronic voyage into the realms of the seemingly infinite deep electronic unknown.
Fair to say, if you got off on “Zeit”, you've got a fair chance of loving this – personally, I can't get enough of it – a work of greatness.

14/06/2026

Music featured on Inkeys that remains exclusively on Inkeys includes Robert Schroeder+Mark Shreeve + Mark Jenkins (Inkeys 2), Neil Ardley (Inkeys 3), Jean-Philippe Rykiel + Andreas Grosser (Inkeys 4), Jasun Martz + Mark Jenkins (Inkeys 5), Bernd Scholl (Inkeys 7), Mainframe (Inkeys 8 ), Ron Berry + Mark Jenkins + Stevo (Inkeys 13), Michel Huygen (Inkeys 15)

14/06/2026

The Inkeys series of exclusive interviews features Jean-Philippe Rykiel (Inkeys 1), Robert Schroeder (iNKEYS 2), Bernard Xolotl (Inkeys 3), Klaus Schulze (Inkeys 4), Mark Shreeve (Inkeys 5), Dave Lawrence (Pulse Label Boss) (Inkeys 6), Chris & Cosey + Bernd Scholl (Inkeys 7), Tony Duhig + Mainframe (Inkeys 😎, Carl Weingarten + Tim Story (Inkeys 9), Tangerine Dream + Roddy McKenna (Jive Electro Boss) (Inkeys 10), Ian Boddy (Inkeys 12), Steve Roach (Inkeys 13), Mark Shreeve (Inkeys 14), Wavestar + Xaliman (Inkeys 15), Michael Stearns (Inkeys 16)