Etherfysh is the project of Chris Christou from Hastings, East Sussex, England. Chris was exposed to EM pretty early in his life. After he grew up he acquired his first synthesizers - a kit built string machine and a Korg MS-10. Since then he has been recording his solo music on cassette and an open reel-to-reel tape recorder. In the mid-80's he got some interest from the French label Egg but eventually nothing came out of it. Finally, Chris set up a new project called Etherfysh which got airplay on several specialized radio stations followed by several CD releases. There are many influences in Chris' music, but the most important ones come from the Berlin School, Vangelis, Tim Blake, Wheater Report and Joe Zawinul. After listening to a 3-track promo with compositions taken from the CD A Box of Fysh I would say that Chris' music will probably be enjoyed by most EM listeners. It's not really sequencer heavy, not on this release at least. Instead, Chris relies on a lot of atmospheric, sometimes mysterious sounds, floating pads and subtle rhythms. Sometimes the music is comparable to 80's Tangerine Dream, although with a very relaxed feel. There is a strong melodic edge to it throughout (although some sections do not have any distinguishable melody per se) and I do notice a few Classical influences as well or so it seems to me. The track "Sidewalk" is very ethnic-sounding. This is interesting stuff with a slick production (the sound quality is very good for a self-produced CD). - EEM