Hawk of the Pines
A lush, haunting soundscape. A portal of time-travel to places deep in the jungle. At times mysterious -- even bordering on echoes of darkness -- throughout the recording I feel as if I'm observing ancient places of torchlit ritual from the periphery but in multiple time-states overlapping. And yet, at times within the recording, I felt that I was being watched from within the interior. / hawkofthepines.com
To simply classify Loren Nerell as just an ambient composer is missing the point. I'd rather refer to Loren Nerell as a sound traveller. Either as a real traveller, armed with a microphone and tape-recorder, to Indonesia, taping sounds from traditional instruments, but also a traveller that takes you, the listener on a journey through the world. In that sense, Loren Nerell is more an ambient composer along the lines of Brian Eno or Jon Hassell and has less in common with Steve Roach or Robert Rich, for whom the pure instrument approach seems to be important. 'Taksu - an intervention from the gods, endowing a man, or perhaps a ritualobject, with divine direction. In a sense Taksu is the essence of a great performance or work of art' - it says on the cover. Can't really argue with the essense of a great performance or work of art, but this is a nice piece of music. Rainforest sounds, far away percussion (drum sounds, maybe anklung or gamelan), which are all embedded in a rich textured sound, but not that of a whole bunch of digital sounds, but it's rather, or so it seems, a treatment of those sounds by electronic means. This CD is maybe not just music, it's rather a bath: you take it, it surrounds you for a while and then you feel good. Taksu is like a hot bath, it fills the space, the environment, it's a surrounding that is nice to be in. And unlike a bath: you can put a CD on repeat and will still feel good and will never get cold. (FdW)
credits
released July 22, 2018
Liner Notes – Chuck Oken, Jr.
Music By [Created By] – Loren Nerell
Technician [Final Enhancements, Processing], Mastered By – Steve Roach
Created between September and December 2002 at Earthbound, Long Beach, California.
Final enhancements, processing and mastering at the Timeroom, February 2003.
Choosing a favorite album by Forrest Fang is a little bit like choosing a favorite child, I mean, you love them all in their own way, right?
Each of his albums has a particular charm and appeal, but if pressed I would suggest that "The Sleepwalker's Ocean" is a particularly high spot in his catalog, taking the listener on a fantastic musical journey, a trip through undiscovered soundscapes and new musical horizons.
It's a trip that's well worth taking if you haven't already... rikm
This is the second album I've supported on Kickstarter that Mark Seelig has appeared on (the other is "Journey to Aktehi" by Seelig & Sam Rosenthal). I have heard/bought many of Nerell's works over the years also, including "Tree of Life." This is a solid pairing of super-talented musicians. Scott
Hypnotic drums and flutes combine forces on a record that draws a musical connection to the natural elements of metal and wood. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 11, 2021