Terra Ambient - Wanderlust
J. Jury | London | 06/29/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"STYLE
Ambient worldbeat fusion. Wanderlust is a dramatic album of cinematic ambience and globally influenced rhythmic soundscaping. The lush textures on the CD are formed through a combination of dense layers combining synthesisers and treated guitars, yet despite this emphasis on artificial sound sources, the music here is very organic in nature even before the additional international instruments make an appearance. The beats are a somewhat hypnotic blend of programmed sounds and hand percussion - Taos drums, frame drums, congas and other real skin surfaces softening the distantly tribal grooves. Sequencer patterns tinkle, shakers rattle, bansuri and didgeridoo lift or deepen the drones.
MOOD
The mood of Wanderlust is at times one of dramatic expanse - the thick beds of sound suggestive of immense vistas and open skies. In other places the mood darkens and Terraambient wanders into shadowy freeform zones of mystery. The general pace of the album is ponderous, unhurried - the bulk of the tracks welling up gradually around beatless introductions, the percussion arriving well along into the music. The final two recordings are beatless - the concluding piece featuring some gentle piano and environmental recordings evoking visions of the sun emerging after rainfall - a very attractive piece and the most overtly melodic of the suite.
ARTWORK
Wanderlust arrives in a jewelcase with a two panel insert. Front cover imagery appropriately features a sweeping landscape open to the enormity of a cloud thickened sky. A somewhat more intimate scene of similar tone appears on the rear - here smoothed out with motion blur. The track titles and brief credits find a place here as well as website and Myspace details for Terraambient. The Insert holds what appears to be a candid image of the artist in a private home on the remaining outer section. Opening up an effulgent spray of sunbeams descend from dark, dark clouds - a panorama filling both panels. Further information is on the leftmost - a paragraph on the Wanderlust project followed by a gear list, thanks and other explanatory snippets.
OVERALL
Jeff Kowal otherwise known as Terra Ambient returns after a five year gap with his latest album Wanderlust released via Lotuspike Records. The 2004 album The Gate was initially the springboard for the new work with the intention being to build on the strictly live and acoustic approach employed for that album. However, things change and music tends to go where it will - consequently the new material has a heavy synthetic content, a blend of world instruments and programmed sound, rich fusions of percussion sources. Jeff has been making music now for over fifteen years and the seven new compositions here benefit from his formal training, multi-cultural musical interests and forays into television, film and galley installation.
WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM
Wanderlust might well appeal to fans of Steve Roach, Na-Koja-Abad - less minimal than extreme ambient by a long way. The Lotuspike site includes samples of a number of tracks and the Terraambient site includes a video of the artist discussing the album.
[...]"
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1