Ian Boddy & Mark Shreeve once again combine forces for their fourth outing as the duo ARC. As with their first release on the DiN label, Radio Sputnik ( DiN 7 ), Arcturus is a recording from one of their rare live performances. Indeed their appearance at the Hampshire Jam III festival in October 2004 was only their second venture onto stage performing together as ARC. This festival held in Liphook, Hampshire has a cult following amongst fans of "Berlin school" style electronic music and always attracts a very enthusiastic audience. In these days of laptops & virtual synths it's quite a sight to see musicians from across Europe assembling to play music using classic synths and struggling to tame large modular systems through a hefty PA and with a mesmerising light show.

Apart from the ARC releases Shreeve has been busy establishing his Redshift group as one of the premier UK electronic music groups with a string of very well recieved releases as well as five concert appearances both in the UK and The Netherlands. For the last decade his music has been built around his massive custom Moog IIIC modular system and his increasing virtuosity with real time sequencing performances. Boddy of course has been building up his DiN label with a string of highly acclaimed albums that have spanned many areas of both retro and modern electronica. It is this combination of styles that have made ARC such an interesting act in their combinations of classic analogue sequencer textures with more modern forms of ambient electronica.

Arcturus captures the duo in full flight with it's combination of full on analogue sequencing, electronic loops, dark atmospherics and haunting keyboard work. The main set which was played as one continuous piece is split into two sections with the encore, Helicon taking the total playing time of the disc up to the 61 minute mark. The music was recorded onto multi-track allowing Boddy & Shreeve to fine tune the production quality of the performance to the highest standard and should ensure Arcturus goes down as one of THE legendary electronic music concert albums.

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