Search - Timmermans, Wise :: Poems of the Five Mountains

An Undiscovered little New Age gem

11/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tim and Skip were bandmates in the pop (or "smooth") Jazz band Windows, a band I believe is no longer active. Around 1988 these 2 decided to record a duet project that bears little or no resemblence to the band from which they came. This music easily fits into the electronic side of the New Age genre with an occaisional slight influence of Jazz or World Music that would only be apparent to the most attentive listener. No other musicians are given credit on this CD, so it appears that all the instruments are played by the duo. Normally Timmermans is a percussionist and Wise a bassist but this CD is also full of allot of keyboard work as well as multiple guitars. This is a fine CD more for fans of early Tangerine Dream or strong melodic New Age music,, though the tunes are all primarily short (unlike most New Age music that is electronically derived), the tracks ranging from the short acoustic guitar based "Muso's Maid" at 1:11 to the uptempo romp "Green Pepper Walls" at 3:39. In fact the longest track on the CD is the most darkly electronic piece "Winter Moon" at 6:55 which features a real nice synthesizer sequence along with electronic tabla drums, It's a great piece that could have gone on longer (odd, because this type of "New Age" music is hardly known for its brevity).
I don't know if this CD will ever find it's true audience, since the Windows fans aren't the ones bound to most appreciate it, and the New Age crowd have probably never even heard of the musicians involved. Too bad. I would put this one in the same catagory as Michael Hoenig's 70's masterpiece "Departure From the Northern Wasteland" in that that CD is the only available release from that musican but is still considered a cult classic of that genre. It's gets quite melodic most of the time and Kitaro fans may also warm to this CD."