In Russian
This group is underrated - judging by the lack of references elsewhere on the Web. This site is not intended to be an official home for the group, and has been created the absence of any formal permission or endorsement.
The music should appeal to those who like Tangerine Dream - post lava-lamp period. Similar in style, it is however more repetitive and shallow - in a nice way. While Tangerine occasionally wandered out into "rock" territory with electric guitars, etc., Software deliberately stays within more confined, new-age boundaries. It should therefore also appeal to fans of Richard Burmer, Davol (Tedder), Jean-Michel Jarre, Kitaro, Patrick O'Hearn, Vangelis (Papathanassiou).
Futuristic or space themes throughout, the "concept album" style is dated and pretentious. Try to ignore the astronomese and computerese song titles and obtuse poetry. Also be aware of high-pressure marketing of members' other projects such as science fiction novels as well as offers of prints of the computer generated cover art which abound within accompanying inserts. Just sit back and enjoy the music.
The CDs are recognized by their computer generated graphics surrounded by white border. They can be found in major record stores lumped together with evil "new age" music. Take my word for it, this is not music to watch fronds grow by. It's lively and it's got definite themes.
If you would like to sample only a few CDs because of their relative high cost, I would recommend "Fragrance" for its musical variety, and "Space Design", a remix and excellent summary of earlier works. Note, Klaus Schulze, ex Tangerine Dream and since prolific composer appears on "Fragrance".
Besides the main members Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser, a number of guest musicians make appearances on the albums. They are listed below alphabetically:
Artwork:
Science fiction novels by Michael Weisser:
Peter Mergener releases his solo works on Cue Records.
You may also jump to SoundDesign - for more useful, but not software-related :-) links. There's also some info on general electronic releases.
Thanks to Sven Kahrkling, original creator of these pages. See acknowledgements for more information.