PHAEDRA

1. "Phaedra" (16:48) if ever there was a perfect electronica companion to Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," this would be it. Eerie and spacey and forlorn yet powered by the human spirit of hope and adventure, TD put something together here that transcends just listening: this is music is suggestive of worlds and sensual experiences beyond normal imagination--or rather, this music enhances the capacity of imagination. Thought the driving sequences change and shift often throughout the course of "Phaedra" the pace is fairly consistent and insistent; there is no let up on the course into infinity--at least, that is, until 10:20, when it appears that we are waylaid by reaching the Void. (And people express their distaste for Genesis' "The Waiting Room"! This must have really irked them!) Luckily, an angelic force appears two minutes later to rescue us and push away the Faeiries of Kaos. Yet, these angels are not from Heaven, but from the Tao! They're here to tell us that beyond the illusory worlds of space and time there exists the potentiality and reality of Anything and Everything and Nothing! Nice song. (9.5/10)

2. "Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" (10:46) opens with what sound like distant street noises as if heard through the bedroom window from a high rise apartment in the middle of a hot, windless summer night. Synth organ enters in a eerie, vampire movie soundtrack kind of way (though also exceedingly close to Tony Banks' intro to "Watcher in the Skies"). The organth floats slowly around the aural soundscape (panning) as flanging and sequenced riffs and synthesized wind noises flit in and around the soundscape. Very somber and depressing. In the sixth minutes signs of life appear in the form of bouncy synths chords and organ arpeggi while the somber organth continues its parade of death through the city streets. Flitting wind gusts (or are they bats?) seem to occasionally join ole Drac as he looks for his latest victim (the humanized chords just before the last minute?) Genius. (9/10)

3. "Movements of a Visionary" (7:58) opens with experimental sounds that seem unnatural without the contributions of electricity. At the end of the second minute a mallet-like sound creates a fast-paced sequence over which organ soon joins. Electric piano later is added while the sequence shifts down an octave or two. (8.5/10) 4. "Sequence in 'C'" (2:17) is peaceful and serene as layers of "wooden flutes" create a pleasant, floating canopy of sheets blowing in the wind. (5/5)

An historic achievement in music and a masterpiece of its genre.