Released October 2005
Groove Unlimited

Track 1 - Journey To The Rim 21:35
Track 2 - Dark Entrance 15:04
Track 3 - Through The Rings 20:48
Track 4 - Soaring Beneath The Surface 15:41

Graphics - Pablo Magne

Mastering - Ron Boots

One of the original ideas for this album was for it to be a tour around the solar system, but we eventually decided to concentrate our efforts on the ringed planet Saturn....

Although in our live concerts we have always used hardware synthesisers, this is the first album where we have used a virtual instrument, in this case Spectrasonics Atmosphere. This meant we used a laptop live in the studio for the first time - maybe something that will appear on stage with us one day........

This album also featured the first appearance of the Sequentix P3 sequencer as the main source of sequences, driving the Novation Supernova.

Michael Shipway and Steve Smith need no introduction. Both have been settled in the EM scene for years now, although they have been operating a lot in the background. With their project VoLt, activity picked up and was brought to attention with two albums on the Groove label.
The third, “Through The Rings”, was released in early October last year and presents four long tracks in their landmark style. The tracks are perfectly built up compositions, and all have a decent mixture of stylish keyboard layering, added sound effects and soulful melodies.
“Journey To The Rim” sets the tone with a lot of variation within 21 minutes and gives the listener a relaxed feeling.
After that, the cd gains more depth and darkness, resulting (for instance) in the mighty mellotron part of the title track and the massive power of the void from the opening part of “Soaring Beneath The Surface”. This is truly significant EM that combines the cosmic electronic style with a variety of solos (mostly on the Roland V-synth) that just keep going in each track.
This is one of the EM highlights of 2005 and if there’s one duo that claim to be the true “Lords of the Rings”, it’s VoLt, without a doubt.

2006. Wouter Bessels