I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Secular Rituals, by Wayne Alpern and it's expansive and thought provoking. I want to start out by saying that the cover for this release has a unique, quiet beauty with hints of a landscape obscured by fog and cleanly designed title and artist notation surrounding a red diamond. Brilliant work by Darline Braz and Kasa Objects. Because the release to me is more a cohesive composition with movements than separate "songs" I will try to describe what I am experiencing aurally rather than isolate specific segments of the passages and note participants. The release opens with Utopia with a varying digital rhythm pattern and notes that seem to hang in the ether. This layering of different digital loops and patterns creates a soothing intro to this release. Victims of Venom is really a cool track with an underlying world music influence. Digital tom tom sounds, jungle sounds and a digital small keyboard create quite an interesting experience. Gomoa Fettah is another interesting cultural trip with African based rhythms and horn/keyboard soloing seeming to be from northern Africa or Asia. Again, a really interesting passage. Sista Re has a more grounded bottom bringing to mind an early Herbie Hancock composition but with a very loose jazz structure and more straight forward keyboards. Afterglow seems to be a quiet exploration in melody with no pronounced rhythm The digital, organ like sound seems suspend on the air. Wrapping the release is Vishvakarma which uses digital sitar, tabla and rhythms to create a pretty convincing journey through India to closure. This is an intellectual adventure in sound and quite entertaining.
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