Label: Aleph Zero Records
Released: 2007

01. Unoccupied - Everyday Life
02. Cord - Zodiac
03. Krill.Minima - Wie Die Wolken Zieht Auch Der Tag Vorbei
04. Hibernation - Melt
05. Cosmic Fools - Bohemian Atmosphere
06. Anahata - Prana
07. Vataff Project - Plasticine Bird
08. Omnimotion - Embrace
09. Ishq And Shulman - Mother Nature
10. Elve - Cyantium Flower
11. Bluetech - Snow Drift
12. Rena Jones - A Curious Unraveling

"Midnight Soul Dive" is the second compilation in discography of Israeli Aleph Zero Records. The CD is compiled by DJ Shahar Bar-Itzhak and Yaniv Shulman - the label's owners.

This disc, promoted as "deep", unfortunately isn't so absolutely deep. While the whole compilation is in short "deep", the first track - "Everyday Life" - by Unoccupied, isn't for sure like that. We have here a poorly arrangement composition with very simple (f.e. guitar) melody and slowly male vocal. This pop-ambient isn't a good start to the next sounds which carry us into areas of ambiguous as well as sensitivity, while mentioned opening track to "Midnight Soul Dive" is not doing this because don't have a depths, it is only seemingly deep.

Depths begin from the second track and from now on till the end we have minimum nice tracks. Music by Cord and Krill.Minima from the tracks 2.-3. (appropriate "Zodiac" and "Wie Die Wolken Zieht Auch Der Tag Vorbei") is the chilly downbeat that is heading into relaxing landscapes. Ambient work by Sebastian James Taylor (Digitalis, Shakta, Angel Tears, Kaya Project) as Hibernation brings us in "Melt" crystalic portions: sounds are appearing like from nowhere, they form in a beautiful, subtle view. This very talented artist another time astonished me with his possibilities. It's worth to look out for this project in the future.

"Bohemian Atmosphere" is a composition that continue the ambient atmosphere of melancholia. Ethereal sounds are floating here at the background of percussion as raft on a little agitated lake in time of cloudly autumn. The second and the last track that quite not so good reflect the main idea of this CD, besides the first track, is "Prana" by Anahata; it's a bit too melodic in my opinion at this stage of the CD. But "Plasticine Bird" by Vataff Project is an ambient, rightly way. Lasts nearly 11-minutes, abstract, was made quite after the style of Ishq. Example for vocal track that can have a depths is "Embrace" by Omnimotion from the track number eight. It's probably because a lttle sounds we have here are immersed in deep reverb.

Marriage of two great projects (Ishq + Shulman) gives us an ambient epic that is continue in "Cyantium Flower" by Elve. "Mother Nature", composed by Matthew Hillier and Yaniv Shulman, is devoided of percussion, total ambient journey with choirs which evolution is "Cyantium Flower" by Hillier; this track from Elve's "Infinite Garden" album is a diving into own imagination. "Snow Drift" by Bluetech is another set of sounds that unusually good illustrate the title that was give to it by the author, though a bit unambiguous this time. And the last "A Curious Unraveling" by Rena Jones nicely leaves us with a little more typical chillout formula.

I expect simply a perfect compilation that will direct me from sounds of reality into abstraction. But unfortunately it isn't, so I have a problem to explicitly rate this CD because I can clearly feel some lacks, the CD isn't coherent as the whole, but from the other side we can draw plenty pleasures from moisturizing the mind with most of the compositions we have here.