EARTHEN

Another collection of beautiful space/New Age songs from Gregory Kyryluk--this time with a Terran focus. Gregory is here employing some new techniques with sequences changing pitches and notes being bent and warped, however, his old habit of using exceedingly long periods of time to let sounds, themes, and sections develop is once again present here. The sounds are beautifully engineered and crystal clear (when he wants them to be), and the journeys are pleasant and satisfying. My one complaint is that I don't feel a lot of emotion conveyed in both the melodies and the development of the songs--there is very little feeling of tension buildup to a 'conflict resolution.' "Pusleforms" is a very pleasant song as it does transition and build after the first third of the way into the song, but even still there is not enough internal tension and build to feel that the artist brings us to peak of the conflict and then a satisfying resolution.

Five star songs: the beautiful, lazy, sleepy-dreamy, 5. "Helios" (12:53) (my favorite on the album) (9/10); 3. "Pulseforms" (10:25) (9/10); the early ENO-esque play with slow attack and decays, 4. "Source" (13:09) (8.5/10)

Four star songs: 1. "Immerse" (13:03) (8.5/10); 2. "Earthen" (11:45) (8.5/10), and; the neo-Berlin School slow sequenced nature sound-enhanced, 6. "Forest" (7:43) (8.5/10).

Again, all of this music sounds as if it could have come off of an early DAVID & STEVE GORDON album except for the incredible sound production here (which is why I rated slightly upward on most of the songs: though I felt as if I was hearing nothing particularly new or exciting, it was all extraordinarily well recorded and engineered).

A solid four star album; well recommended to others--especially those looking for particularly well-produced sound.