"Number Nine" is Hülsbeck's latest album, and for the 1st time it's not a remix-album of game-soundtracks, but it's all-new tracks by the master himself. Additional artists are so well-known musicians like Jonne Valtonen (Purple Motion), Markus "Atroxis" Holler, Fabian Del Priore, Jan Zottmann (Immortal 2 & 3) and many more. The CD comes with a nice booklet, which is divided into two parts, the 1st is german, the 2nd is english, so everyone could get most out of it. The booklet contains infos about Chris' beginnings, his job at Rainbow Arts, the Kaiko years, his movement to US and then tells the story of the VST revolution (virtual studio technology), which finally allowed Chris to get hold of the "instruments" he has always been dreaming of but couldn't afford.
The music is done mostly using the described VST technology, but there is also some real electric bass in some tracks, Manus Buchard plays electric guitar on some tracks and Chris himself plays the Ukulele on two tracks.
The album consists of 16 tracks and has a total playing time of 74 Minutes, so you really get a bang for the buck! And the tracks? Well, the tracks are mostly electronic, but with a nice ambient flavour, influences by Vangelis, Jan Hammer or Vince di Cola are definitely in there, but everything is in the typically Hülsbeck style. There are a few tracks you can think of being the soundtrack for "Turrican 2007" or "To Be On Top 07 Edition", but most of the songs are less "Melody in your Face", more dreamy chill-out tracks for sunday morning...
There is some kind of bonus track (#16), it's the Turrican 3 Piano Suite as it has been played at the Games Convention in Leipzig in 2006. But my favourite track is "Those Were The Days", which is (only) based on some Hülsbeck melodies and is arranged and produced by Jan Zottmann & Fabian Del Priore. The special touch on this track is the female voice by Birgit Holler (the wife of Markus). Beautiful melodies, perfect sounds.
So what is the sum? If you like the Hülsbeck sound, this is a no brainer. If you ecpect catchy game-melodies like Apidya or Turrican, well, it could be that you will be a little bit disappointet, but only after the first listening. If you listen to the album a second or third time, you will get to it. You will recognize the work and love, that Chris has put in this CD, you will understand all the nice little melodies and the CD will stay in your CD-Player for a long time...
You can get the CD at Synsoniq Records or at Apple's iTunes Store.