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Paul Ellis and Craig Padilla
Echo Systems

Paul Ellis and Craig Padilla are two of the top sequencer and Berlin school 
electronicians in the new millennium. They began a collaboration in 2002. That project was 
put to the wayside when Craig’s wife gave birth to their first child.
WHOA! Echo Systems arrived this year (2004)! This is a great CD! It is, without a 
doubt, one of the top ten sequencer space music albums of all time! Craig and Paul 
combine analog and digital synths, sequencers, chorale effects, rhythms, crunches, delays, 
atmospheres and every manner of processing technique to create magnificent soundscapes 
that are outer space! The music is the adventure! It is the journey!

Interestingly, Paul and Craig "assume no responsibility for unaligned charkas." This 
disc is, however, a real rarity. This is Berlin school sequenced meditation music. Veterans of 
the e-music community – performers, listeners, reviewers and friends – will recognize the 
juxtaposition of those terms and styles. Sequences do not generally lend themselves to 
overtones and meditation. This disc is an exceptional CD with qualities that make it an 
instant legend! It also places Paul and Craig in the perpendicular universe – rare territory 
for Berlin schoolers!

2004 continues to yield outstanding music! - Jim Brenholts

Paul Ellis
The Sacred Ordinary

The Sacred ordinary might be sacred but it is - decidedly - NOT ordinary. It 
might be the strongest Berlin school CD of the new millennium and it is certainly one of the 
best of that style - EVER! Paul Ellis created this masterpiece of analog sounds 
on digital equipment. (Rudy Adrian contributed some material to the disc and some of 
it might be on analog gear.) Paul is noted for creating in that mode.
But this is a review of the CD, not of Paul’s career or studio!  This is a great disc! The 
compositions have depth, soul, class and integrity. Paul’s virtuosity on all boards – key, mixing 
and engineering – is at its peak! Each piece has its own beauty and clarity. The CD plays as 
one huge soundscape with eight “subscapes” and hundreds of atmospheres - some 
subtle and some overt. This is a great CD, high on the list of 2003’s best! - Jim 
Brenholts





Into the Liquid Unknown
by Paul Ellis
Hypnos/Binary, 2001
http://www.hypnos.com/binary

        Over the years I’ve learned to trust Hypnos’ excellent taste when it comes
to slow, nocturnal, minimalistic ambient. If it’s Hypnos, it’s going to be
good. So I’m delighted that Hypnos has decided to branch out into faster,
more rhythmic electronic ambient. Their taste is equally good here in their
set of recordings under the “Binary” sub-label.

        Paul Ellis makes electronic music the old-fashioned way: with machines, not
with loops and samplers and digital doohickeys. Or at least it sounds that
way. Ellis’ sound comes direct from the sequencer-driven, beeping oscillator
music that I enjoyed (and made) back in the ‘70s. There’s a “European”
quality to his work, with inevitable comparisons to Kraftwerk, Tangerine
Dream, and Jean-Paul Jarre, but this is less pretentious. Ellis is more
concerned with tracery and texture and interweaving strands of sound, a kind
of abstract electronica rather than something derived from the world of rock
or pop. Only in a few places does he use sampled instruments or an electric
guitar. His sound is spare and perhaps a bit dry ­ no grandiose caverns of
reverb or banging percussion here.

        Though he remains within the non-melodic world of ambient, he has a good
sense of underlying harmony (in the usual minor/modal keys) and when to
change it to avoid monotony. There are some sweet drifting moments, and some
satisfying dark metallic glints; every so often he also scatters some
special effects to liven things up. If there is such a thing as “classical”
electronic music, this is it. It’s a shining, optimistic, futuristic sound
that seems to come from a time when people could imagine such a future.


HMGS rating: 8 out of 10


Hannah M.G. Shapero, EER-MUSIC.com
11/8/01



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