Quite a Trip...
5
By kejoness
Apparently, the iTunes version of the album is still not complete, as it begins with You (Wind). This is a review of the iTunes version.
The tracks all blend into each other.
-- Track 1 starts out deep ambient, with no beat. It eventually adds a hushed beat that sounds like footsteps gently swishing.
-- Track 2 continues the gentle, hushed swishing, and the ambience, adding in a wistful little tune on some synthesized version of a wind instrument. The swishing pauses occasionally, like someone walking hesitantly at night, stopping to listen now and again for unexpected company.
-- Track 3 is just a brief transition.
-- Track 4 builds in more deeply resonant drumbeats interspersed with what sounds like a bird whistle, a woman's singing echoing roundly in the background, and sometimes speaking in French. It just reminds me of hunting, especially after the shady mood of the first tracks.
-- Track 5 loses all rhythm, and gracefully demonstrates the power of the Moog synthesizer to give the illusion of vastness. Like a lighthouse beacon turning slowly in the night, the ambient chords roll gently in and out on this track.
-- Track 6 lays down a funky, "Doctor Who"-like vibe, in a consistent, relatively fast rhythm. Occasionally, a deep chorus occurs in the background, putting out a ponderous refrain. It goes on for a rather long time in this manner, without much change. Eventually, a fairly solid drumbeat joins and punctuates the vibe rhythm, adding a little intensity to the track. Less dynamic than the rest of the album, this track nonetheless fits well with listening on long drives in an autmobile.
-- Track 7 is an ambient, reflective transition that ceases the beat.
-- Track 8 has a sense of urgency to it, with a rapid, light beat on the cymbals, and short, fast-paced, recurrent chords on the synthesizer. Eventually, a higher-pitched synthesizer theme plays in free-form around the beat.
-- Track 9 starts out with a moderately supsenseful passage that sounds a little like the tension building portion of "Thus Spake Zarathustra." When it breaks, it heads in a slightly different direction from that. An echoing saxophone heralds the beginning of what sounds like a total mental breakdown: a deep drum beat, accompanied by the deepest, most echoing horn blow I've ever heard, rips through the relative stability of the rest of the album, slowly advancing and building, like a powerful chant or summoning. I imagine looking down on a primitive, massive forest valley from a mountainside, hearing the horns echo across the valley like a rousing call to some gathering. Then a cacophany of whispering, echoing, and truly disturbed sounding voices cascades over a quickened beat. Eventually, the voices cease, and then the beat ceases, and only a deep choral drone remains, as a woman speaks in French...
