SPLINTERS, VOL. II: BRUISE

1. "Bruise" (23:45) Though this one started off a bit like some of Alio Die and Jon Hassell/Brian Eno's less engaging, more challenging music, it became one of the most gut- and heart-wrenching pieces of music I've heard all year! Those chords and incidental and glitch sounds in the fifth & sixth minutes are so beautiful, so ethereal, so engaging! Then we slowly transition into the incredible eighth minute and wow! a piano chord at 7:48 nearly makes my knees buckle! Ryuichi Sakamoto land, to be sure! The shifting synth-wash chord changes are killing me! At 11:30 there begins another slow, subtle shift, taking over four minutes of peaceful water's edge bar-do to fully reveal the next motif: stark piano arpeggi flying over the drone of the Earth's deep thrum with clouds and bird synths and, later, Middle Eastern human city flitting into the astral excursion. This is one out-of-body experience that I wanted to go on forever! (47.5/50)

2. "Receptor" (8:44) a very cool series of beautifully- and seemlessly-blended loops in which simple aural tropospheres are generated using heavily-treated, dream-like effects. Not sure if this one is more Blade Runner-like industrial Off-World or street-bound Earth during COVID dystopia. My favorite sounds are the human ones-- especially the whistles. (18.5/20)

3. "Vacrys" (5:38) I hear HAROLD BUDD and ROBIN GUTHRIE in this one. (9/10)

4. "Nydised" (9:24) like an ambient percussive exploration that PAT METHENY & LYLE MAYS would use--especially if collaborating on a HANS ZIMMER soundtrack. Incredible! Like waiting at a Far-tube stop somewhere out in the cosmos! (18.5/20)

5. "Jikan" (6:07) more piano-based floating. More Budd (and Battlestations) than Guthrie or Eno. Incredible chord changes! More hypnotically incredible! (9.25/10)

6. "Unelind" (6:39) beautiful waves of synth washes among a mix of celestial "sounds" and temporal atmospherics (drums). Gorgeous and transportive: like an Ed Unitsky album cover or a steam ship into the Galactos! (9.5/10)

Total Time 61:01

This man is an absolute genius! How/Why he's not getting more attention and fame I do not understand for he's merely evolved from writing the soundtrack of our times (war, degradation, and collapse), and our kind (hope amid brutish cruelty), to the soundtracks of our future (cosmically)! This is the kind of music that makes me so proud to be Homo sapiens sapiens! I can't get enough of his chord choices and powerful, deeply moving chord changes!

A/five stars; an absolute masterpiece of Progressive Electronic music--music for our infinite future! HIGHLY recommended!

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