Ma Ja Le & Vir Unis
Imaginarium
Next in the series of reviews for the new trad ambient label ‘Mirage’ we have this sonic treasure. The spooky atmospherics and wooden flute sounds of ‘Passionate Lava’ combine with a slow tabla type rhythm to create a hypnotic but relaxed groove. One thing this album certainly isn’t is all drift but it in no way could the music be described as dynamic or intrusive. Very relaxing stuff but with more elements to the overall sound collage than any of the other albums from the first Mirage batch. Steve Roach co produced the album and contributes more directly to four of the tracks, and it shows. Fans of Steve should purchase this disc without hesitation.

The formula doesn’t change too radically as we float through ‘Blue’ and arrive at ‘Falling Sky’, a dripping, rumbling slap of formless atmospherics bringing to mind spectres from the depths. ‘Imaginarium’ gets us back into the groove, melody being provided by very subtle guitar licks. An uplifting and warm piece taking us a bit away from what I think of as ambient music but beautiful never the less. Shimmering gongs and gentle percussive effects take us back to this albums ambient roots with ‘Shingon’. Add the sound of a flute and a rather eastern feel is developed. At about the half way mark the guitar makes an entrance, very gently providing a soft focus to this stunning moody piece.

’Spiritual Diving’ is another track with very little structure yet an amazing ability to form all sorts of tropical images in the mind. ‘Red Moon at Kayenta’ is initially a real floater but then an ethnic rhythm is introduced but rather than driving the piece forward it just sits over the top of the atmospherics with a flute providing a bridge between the two, strange but effective. ‘Incomprehensible Love’. Well for a start it is completely incomprehensible to me why our friends on the other side of the pond can come up with such superb music but yet don’t seem to be able to resist naff, head in the bucket, titles. Putting that to one side, we get another slab of very evocative picture music.

‘Fire Walkers’ is probably the best track here, it has everything, layer on layer of instrumentation and yet still managing to sound delicate with that feeling of space. God knows how they do it but this sort of track separates the true ambient masters collected together on this album from the host of “put a brick on the keyboard and move it after half an hour” so called ambient merchants that send music to SMD (and don’t get reviewed or listed). If you were ever tempted to buy an ambient album start here, it displays all that is good in this field of music and is very accessible at the same time. (DL)

This page is part of a frame set. If you can't see the information strip to the left of the screen then click on the smd logo above.