Not many chill out compilations get to open with a name like Mikis Theodorakis. 'On The Road', the cut that opens this third volume, pairs the Greek composer — the man behind the scores for 'Zorba the Greek', 'Z' and 'Serpico' — with producer Francesco Diaz, and comes from 'Timeless', the rework album released for his 85th anniversary. Six minutes in Eb minor at 116 BPM, the only deep house tag on the whole record, and a clear statement of intent: melody outranks function here.
The other name with history is Lemongrass, the project Roland Voss founded in 1996, one that left its mark on modern lounge with 'Journey To A Star' (2001) before he built the Lemongrassmusic label with his brother Daniel in 2005. His 'Not The End' settles at 90 BPM — the most repeated tempo in the selection, with nine cuts sharing that cruising speed — and in Db minor, a key it shares with Cataldo's 'A Kiss' and Roberto Sol's 'Trip to Agadir': a tonal core that quietly glues the middle stretch together.
The anomaly is called 'Bossa Moraira'
Among so many three- and four-minute miniatures, Tescana's extended mix stretches out over 12:52 — nearly three times the record's average length — and pushes up to 136 BPM in C major. It is the piece that breaks the compilation's postcard logic, and only Dreamweavers' 'Last Light', 9:22 at 120 BPM, comes close in format ambition.
The opposite extreme belongs to Jane Maximova's 'Open Seas': 70 BPM in A minor, the absolute floor of the set. Between the reworked Greek master and that near-motionless depth, volume 3 breathes best when it steps outside the norm rather than chaining 90 BPM postcards: its strongest arguments are precisely the tracks that don't fit.
Sources: El Hype · Lemongrassmusic · Shazam