True World Class Tribal Ambience.

Terra Ambient is musical artist Jeff Kowal who lays a powerful array of musical ambience to the SFM roster. Jeff has now released his debut CD The Darker Space as well as preparing a live show and collaborating with several other musicians on individual projects.

Terra Ambient is a journey into the heart of primitive groove. It is the search for deep, dark places in the consciousness. It is an exploration into the rhythm between man and nature. Tune In. Breathe. Chill Out

Jeff Kowal - Digital and Soft Synthesizers, Drum Machines, Self-Made Samples and Loops, Guitar, Didjeridoo, Tar, Shaker, Hand Percussions, Voice, Flute and other Wind Instruments.

Terra Ambient is Jeff Kowal (rhymes with vowel). The Darker Space is his debut CD. It is a set of deep tribal minimalism. Jeff is from Pittsburgh, PA, not exactly the hotbed of electronic music. His introduction to the e-music community was quite a coincidence. Steve Roach communicated with some folks trying to put together a concert in the city. He gave Jeff's number as a possible resource. Jeff soon encountered a very zealous friend of the e-music community. The friend's excitement and enthusiasm were contagious and Jeff's new journey began. He has two collaborations in the works and several more potential gigs.

But, this is about the awesome soundscapes and atmospheres on The Darker Space! Jeff borrows from many diverse influences and puts his own unique spin to the proceedings. The atmospheres are wide and the textures are arid. This is hot organic desert ambience with minimalist timbres. The disc smokes!

It would be unfair to compare this gifted and humble young man to others at this stage of his career. Suffice it to say that as he develops and matures, there will be further accolades!

This promises to be one of the highlights of an already stellar year!
all the best and God bless!

jim brenholts

Well, ambientspace-music can count another pioneer to their community: Jeff Kowal alias Terra Ambient is a good friend of reviewer & Ambient Visions-contributor Jim Brentholts, who hereby present a strong debut with The Darker Space. The intruiging soundworlds, as inspired by fellow-musicians like Roach, Pearce etc. contain a good portion of high-tech as can be clearly heard in the first two tracks. Fast tribal-ambient rhythms layered in the background blend with spacy, almost shadowed synthwashes, spreading out its beauty in all its wideness. The floating and warm The Glass House is my personal favorite as it is able to gently carry the listener away into a relaxed state of mind. The midsection of this remarkable album is overall more peacefull but never annoying in any sense, leaning closely towards space/ambient in its best tradition. Under Dirt X features some sample-techniques who run very close to what Saul Stokes achieves while fabricating his more industrial-kindered music. The closing/title-track is the only one delving into deeper, more darker territory in addition to all the formentioned music. The wonderful, intimate mastering of Robert Rich really make this disc out as such. This album just honestly deserves to be highly recommended !

Info on www.jeffkowal.com or spaceformusic.com

-- Bert Strolenberg, Klem Magazine (The Netherlands)

Terra Ambient - The Darker Space

I have had my copy of "Terra Amient - The Darker Space" for a little over 2 weeks now, and it has yet to leave my cd player. This cd released on the SpaceForMusic Records label has got to be one of the best yet I've heard coming from SFM.

From the first notes that come from the speakers, you know you are in for an unforgetable journey into the ambient world of space drones and a magical dreamland. Jeff Kowal aka Terra Ambient has outdone the best with his "The Darker Space" cd.

The tones produced by this mastermind could stand alone, yet he takes it a step further and adds ethnic/tribal percussion fading in and out throughout the entire cd, giving it a Peter Gabriel flavor. (Think of PG's OVO, or LAST TEMPTATION with a hint of BIRDY)

The Darker Space includes 2 of my favorite tracks, "Aether" and "First Light On Aeyer's Rock". Both tracks are outstanding and give us a whole new experience of what ambient music is all about.

I've listened to the cd at various volumes and found for maximum effect the cd should be played at a low volume late at night. Close you eyes and let Terra Ambient take you through The Darker Space.

If you are thinking of purchasing an ambient cd, I highly recommend Terra Ambient - The Darker Space. You shouldn't be without this one.

-- Stephen at TQE Productions

Jeff Kowal’s The Darker Space (SFM Records) is one of the best recording i’ve heard this year! ...and the best debut i’ve ever heard! Love the rhythmic backgrounds and atmospheres that Jeff has created. My fav. track is The Glass House (Tr.4). I first heard this track on Jeff’s website (jeffkowal.com), check it out you want be disappointed. The sounds and textures are excellent, as well as the overall sound quality is top notch. If you don’t have a copy of this debut your missing out big time.

-- Brannan Lane, ambient recording artist

Terra Ambient
The Darker Space
Space For Music

In Pittsburgh’s ever-intensifying battle for its own young population, the city can look at the story of Jeff Kowal as one small victory. A Pittsburgh native, ambient electronic musician Kowal spent ten years in Philadelphia before recently returning home. Now, under the Terra Ambient moniker, Kowal has recently released a disc of “primitive groove”-fueled soundscapes on the Internet-based ambient music label Space for Music Records.

But don’t expect Terra Ambient’s “primitive groove” to be John Digweed tribal trance-dance or hippie anarcho-socialist ramblings. On The Darker Space, Kowal builds ethereal space chords and drones into repetitive soundtracks ranging from nearly unnoticeably ambient (“First Light on Aeyer’s Rock”), to tribal (“The Breathing Earth”), to downright militant (“Aether”). While the usual cast of ambient-music adjectives applies to many of the tracks (shimmering, elemental, etc.), when Kowal applies electronic African and Middle Eastern rhythms to his synth mantras, the music approaches the kind of urgency usually reserved for music found outside the acupuncture salon.

While the average man on the street is never going to have the patience necessary for a piece such as “Amaria (The Darker Space)” -- nearly nine minutes of droning electronic tones and synthesized ocean waves -- the Echoes crowd will probably discover a new hero in Terra Ambient. This is music as meaty as ambient stuff gets, multiple layers of tone disguised as one, reaching out rather than sitting back. ---(Justin Hopper)