...is the second Blue Lily Commission album, recorded summer through autumn 2000. There are seven tracks:

In the heart of the old city, massive strings, man. Ancient orchestras gather trills and swirls from some non-even-tempered well then shake ‘em up into a festival sound that heart-beats and slow-dives through a sonic fabric. Y’know?
In the heart of the old city is a bendir’n’bass club run by wired western travellers. The buzzing pulse of the traditional bendir drum - goatskin’n’wood - is opposed by sizzling percussion and whooming sub-bass, overlaid end to end with a cosmic choir.
In the heart of the old city, acid corrodes the dreams of youth into warped musics: an overdriven TR909 fights deraboukah drums and skull-crushing bass. A music of strange fury.
In the heart of the old city a man plays arghul drone. The arghul is a double-reed pipe played for millenia by the people of the Middle East. Its raw, yet plaintive sound echoes over a rich fabric of chords, echoing though dusty streets.
In the heart of the old city you can find the Perpetual Loop Commission. A twenty-four hour, seven-day sonic web set at 150 bpm thumps out of this worldbeat club. Resident sound engineers gather loops sent over the internet from all over the Middle East, working them into the pulsing fabric - flutes and lutes and analogue riffs. Some people send solo passages or rhythmic information. This is a perpetual music that never ends.
In the heart of the old city, nothing is still. Motion is a constant background to the wistful silence of religious theorists, to the arrogant schemes of the technocrats. Cars and motor bikes and solar powered skateboards. And robots playing synthesizers.
In the heart of the old city is a chill-out courtyard where, wrecked at 4am, you can go to wash your mind in birdsong and fountain water, as lush chords break like surf over your thoughts.

This release is more wide-ranging than the debut "Wine Songs", starting with a splendid track, 'Massive Strings, Man' that sounds like Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europe Express' played by a string-led chamber orchestra from either the Indian sub-continent or Arabia - it's like nothing else you've heard before and is just amazing, with synths and percussion travelling along, allowing you to experience the journey first-hand. This feel of travelling through assorted territories of varying degrees of exoticism, beauty and fascination, a world wholly unfamiliar to Western eyes and ears yet with more than enough reference points to prevent you from feeling threatened or failing to understand and appreciate the compositional delights, is one that runs right through the heart of what is one serious album... The final track, 'Chill-Out Courtyard', is the biggest sounding piece on the album, with huge electronic, synth and percussive layers, more an assortment of layers and textures than traditional melodies and rhythms this time, all combining to create a spectacular musical soundscape. There are nature effects in there too, towering layers of rumbling bass synth, but a crystalline sound throughout with a gigantic organ-like flow adding to the overall sound as the composition ebbs and flows. Overall, then, like "Wine Songs", sounding absolutely perfect, immaculately played and produced - an album of essential listening and ultimately long-lasting enjoyment, timeless and perfect at the same moment.

Another fine cd from Blue Lily Commission, one that builds upon the strengths of the first release, 'Wine Songs'. It opens with the title track, a piece of music that creates an unsettling air. It sounds menacing, it sounds slightly disturbing, it sounds wrong; slightly off-key samples build over a pretty standard rhythm, as ever built from ethnic sounds. There follows six more tracks of 'middle east trance fusion', all in all a good use of an hour of anyone's time. Steve cites influence from modern day trance acts such as Shpongle and Global and from more traditional German electronic bands, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze - and I can hear Kraftwerk. A fan of any of these would find much to enjoy here. Of course, what places Blue Lily Commission ahead of thousands of others is the organic sounds Steve brings through his own playing of various ethnic instruments; the saz (apparently a kind of Turkish long neck lute), bouzouki, flutes and various bits of percussion... And, as promised, there are harder beats, more up ups and more down downs! In a recent online discussion where people were searching for music with a Middle Eastern air I had no hesitation in recommending Blue Lily Commission. I only hope people took me up on it as I'm sure they wouldn't have been disappointed.

'A blend of Middle Eastern influences and TR-909 beats, and it ain't bad.'

'In The Heart Of The Old City...' is the follow up to Wine Songs (reviewed in AI #14), and serves up more of Palmer's space ambient ethnic music. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of percussion in this music, the rhythms and beats often standing equally prominent among the synths and ethnic stringed instruments. Imagine Manuel Göttsching teaming up with Shadowfax and you'll get a notion of what Blue Lily Commission is about.
The CD opens with "Massive Strings Man". Dancey drumming and strained strings and drones set the pace for Palmer's Middle Eastern influences that also have dashes of hip-hop. The predominant melody lines have a slight dragged effect that's difficult to describe, but they give the song its character and are embellished by various drones and some spacey orchestration. Palmer later introduces one of his ethnic stringed instruments which creates a more overtly Egyptian feel. "Bendir 'n' Bass Club" is similar to some of my favorites from Wine Songs, recalling some of Manuel Göttsching's guitar and electronics explorations, though here we've got heavy doses of rhythm from Palmer's quietly intricate percussion. I love the combination of space atmospherics and almost salsa-like drumming. What seems like an odd contrast goes together nicely making for a unique sound.
On "Acid Corrodes", pulsating sequenced electro percussion states the main theme as repetitive synth patterns and sounds slowly develop around it. There are also orchestral space washes that intermittently paint the landscape. But the percussion is the most prominent actor, creating a near techno feel that throbs, but still includes a sense of "drumming". "Chill-Out Courtyard" is another highlight, featuring pulsating high-pitched keyboards and a bit of a Rick Wright Floydish sound, quietly tinkling bells and percussion, and mucho trippy synths. The percussion doesn't serve a rhythmic role here. Rather, it provides little focal points among the meditative music. Dreamy landscapes, all-out space freakiness, and slightly avant-garde percussion makes for an enjoyably strange but mind expanding ride. And my favorite track on the disc is "Perpetual Loop Commission". Lots going on here. Steady dancey percussion, more of those Rick Wright styled keyboards, Church-like keys, flutes, Middle Eastern horns, ethnic stringed instruments, all amidst an uplifting cosmic atmosphere. Wheewww... it sounds overwhelming but it's easy to get peacefully lost.'

'A mostly ethnic percussive effort with an extremely chilled vibe, this is perforated by haunting pads, sinister sounds and a beautifully deep sub bass. But it's the rhythmic elements that excel in developing the overall feel of the song.'