MIXTUS ORBIS

I'll jump on the masterpiece bandwagon with this one. It is truly musical ecstasy from beginning to end. This is very much Indo-Raga, but the jazz-fusion element is just as if not more prevalent. But it is also minimalism as it reminds me of Terry Riley, Steve Reich or Philip Glass because it is very drone-oriented and the complexity comes from the sheer number of sounds overlaying each other including haunting female vocals of the sort you would hear on the original 60s Star Trek theme.

It starts out innocently enough with just a piano but then is joined by a violin, then a tabla. Every instrument repeats in loops. As more instruments come in, it allows other ones to go into variations. With nine different instruments on the album you can imagine how rich it becomes. The tension builds and builds into a sonic frenzy. The last track has the same formula but some exotic chanting is included.

Wow. At just over 30 minutes long divided into two longer and two shorter tracks, it goes by way too fast. It seems like it's just getting started and then it's all over leaving you torn between the ecstasy of having heard such beautiful music and the meloncholy of knowing this is so obscure it hasn't seen the light of day on CD and that this was a fleeting moment in time that will never be repeated exactly like this again.