Indra
Tara
CD / 3 tracks / 69.26 mins
Play Sample:   56K Dialup   Broadband
Download Sample:   500K   1.5Mb
(Excerpt from track(s) 'Anthology')
This is the second in a series of 'Special Edition' albums, 'Kali' being the first. Now, Kali was an excellent Berlin School album but this one is, amazingly, even better. 'Nectar Point' starts with sounds that could, appropriately, be the buzzing from a huge hive of bees. This backdrop is punctuated by lovely little note droplets. A slow sequence starts up, added to by splashes of sound. It's wonderfully meditative stuff and very (as I often seem to say in Indra reviews) Klaus Schulze like, this time from the 'Body Love' period. The sequence fades away and a new one, if anything even better than the first, takes over. It's best just to close your eyes and let yourself go with the flow. Yet another sequence comes in and the pace quickens. Stunning stuff.

'The Long Journey' continues in a similar style, a brace of lovely bass sequences propelling us forward right from the off, wonderful lonesome undulating pads underpinning it all. It's just so mid 70s sounding. More vast walls of sonic perfection swell making me think of the double 'Live' Schulze album from this period. From an already brilliant start the album just gets better and better. The sequences subside leaving a lovely atmospheric section that could have been very at home on 'Blackdance' or even 'Timewind'. As expected the sequences emerge once more. The first is very similar to earlier but it is accompanied by a heavily processed 'tom tom' type one. A third falls into formation, morphing superbly. It's all so exciting - a real roller coaster ride of how sequencing should be done. Actually now we are in more Tangerine Dream territory from the same period though the lonesome lead is still decidedly Schulzian and 100% fantastic. The unbelievable quality continues through to 'Anthology'. The sequences are simply mesmerizing and surge forward right from the very first minute. This time though it's as if there is a melding of Schulze and Jarre! Difficult to believe I know but incredibly effective. Then in come the slow but insistent drums (or you could say bass sequence) as well as all manner of other sonic wizardry in the background. Absolutely incredible!

More waves of sequences arrive and the rhythm becomes even meaner but still fitting in perfectly with the rest of the track. I'm really at a loss for words. Things calm down in the eleventh minute to swirling atmospherics but then a beautiful delicate tinkling sequence comes to join in. This section might not be as powerful as the last few minutes but the sounds chosen are exquisite. I'm in Heaven. The heavier rhythm / sequence returns in the sixteenth-minute and I found myself really cranking up the volume. By the twenty-sixth minute things have started to calm down again, becoming increasingly moody. Yet another sequence enters with just five minutes to go. It is a sedate one and slightly alters the atmosphere already created to one of subtle melancholy.

This is simply one of the best Berlin School albums to have been released over the last 12 months and as far as I am concerned the pinnacle of Indra's career thus far. (DL)

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