October 11th, 2008 saw the release of the second album of Dutch synthesist Synth.nl, aka Michel van Osenbruggen, a concept-cd inspired by the layers of air in the atmosphere surrounding our globe. Listening to the 12 tracks (ranging between four and seven minutes) feels like an relaxed journey, offering a nice range of fresh sound pads, fx's, (sampled) environmental sounds and sequencer lines, spiced up by drums and percussion. I feel, Michel has brought more rest and expression to his music compared to the outcome on his debut "AeroDynamics". It sound solid and mature to my ears, the solo's have more expression and the music sounds transparent and worked up all the way.

Especially 'Stratosphere' is an encompassing, warm and uplifting travelogue up the sky. The slight influence of Jarre can be noticed on various spots on the album, but Michel's moody music expertly pursues its own direction, delivering its own thing to accesible synthesizer music. All in all, Michel did a very fine job on 'AtmoSphere'. I trust Synth.nl will go far for sure.