We got a nice surprise in the mail at Synthtopia this week – a vinyl LP of synth music by Swiss synthesist Bruno Ender Lee.

Long time readers of Synthtopia will be familiar with Lee’s live synth jam videos from our Sunday Synth Jam series. Lee’s music is explicitly in the space music category, with titles like Hyperspace, Mindsong and Moonsphere. Though Lee has clearly been inspired by classic Berlin school music, especially the work of Klaus Schulze, his albums, now in the dozens, define a unique vision for this genre.

Lee’s Hope Beyond Menace is a full on 12′ vinyl LP of space music.

PIcking it up, putting the vinyl on the turntable and looking at the alien sci fi artwork on the cover brought back memories – memories of discovering artists like Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Michael Stearns, listening to their albums, staring at the covers and daydreaming about all the exotic gear listed in the notes, or just letting one’s imagination wander.

The album features two side-long tracks, menace & hope. Each is built around sub-shaking bass drones, propulsive sequences and swirling electronic effects. Lee lists synthesizers from Synthesizers.com, MacBeth, Doepfer, ARP, Moog, Roland and Korg in album notes – and the music is full of classic analog sounds.

You can get a preview of Hope Beyond Menace from Lee’s promo video, above.

Hope Beyond Menace is available on vinyl-LP (including a copy on CD) directly from Bruno Ender Lee (email).