Winter-Light is extremely happy to welcome the duo 'Bridge To Imla' to our label, for their first full length album ‘The Radiant Sea’.

Bridge To Imla is the duo of Hans-Dieter Schmidt and Michael Brückner, created in 2017 to distinguish their particular style of cinematic ambient from their respective solo projects. Hans-Dieter and Michael initially met at ambient group improvisations by the Frankfurt based EK-Lounge community around 2010, and had already collaborated previously on several occasions.

The origins of the album go back to August 2013, when Michael Brückner produced a dark ambient track called "All The Weight Of The Sun" for a compilation by Jack Hertz' label Aural Films called "Fukushima Drones" that dealt with the (then recent) nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Whilst working on that track, Michael created hours of different soundscapes, most of which remained unused. Later that same year, Hans-Dieter and Michael started to make plans for recording an album together, and those unused soundscapes then formed the raw material for what finally became "The Radiant Sea". Expanding on the original theme of ecological concern, the album is both a contemplation about the current pollution of the Pacific ocean - not only caused by the Fukushima disaster, but by human influence in general - and is also a praise of the beauty of our planet's biggest ocean...

The album is a rich woven tapestry of dark ambient soundscapes and deep electronics mixed with more traditional instruments. It will pull you across the vast stretches of the mighty Pacific Ocean, dragging you down to it's murky depths and across it's vast plains before depositing you in to the deep trenches and ridges that lurk there. Polluted by radiation and man's indifference to nature, 'The Radiant Sea' continues in its struggle to restore the balance and maintain its beauty and dignity.

When it came to the question of who should master the album,’Bridge To Imla’ had already set their sights high and had just one person in mind; the ambient composer and mastering engineer Robert Rich. With over four decades of musical experience and knowledge to bring to the studio, Robert has applied his ears and talents to “The Radiant Sea’ and finely tuned and polished the tracks to bring out the best ambient feel and experience for the listener. We are extremely happy with the final results, as of course, are ‘Bridge To Imla’. We would like to say a big thank you to Robert, for doing such wonderful work. A true “master” craftsman.

Hans-Dieter Schmidt

Hans-Dieter Schmidt is a German keyboarder, flute player and electronic composer; from 1977 to 1984 he was keyboarder of locally successful bands like "Finnegan's Wake" and "Feinbein" (with the latter he released an LP). From 1986 on he was involved in different electronica projects, and since 1986 he works under the project name "Imaginary Landscape".

Michael Brückner

Michael Brückner started to be involved in electronic music around 1992 and has recorded a rather large number of albums since, with an emphasis on ambient and more recently "Berlin School" / retro space music. While most of his albums are self-released, since 2012 several of them also appeared on different small independent labels around the world.

Michael Brückner: electronics, synthesizer, keyboards and sound

design.

Hans-Dieter Schmidt: synthesizer, keyboards, EWI (electronic wind

instrument) and flute.

Robert Rich: Mastering

Midnight Sun Studio: Design, cover concept and layout.