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The field of Spacemusic offers nothing better than Craig Padilla at his best. Keeping the past in his heart as he strides toward the future The Pulse of Life (68:12) packs a cosmos of ideas into over one hour of listening pleasure. In a craving for vastness volatile voltages pass through the many mesmeric moments of this searching moonlight flight. Breathing in the midnight air Padilla's music exhales starlight. Drifting between synthesizer states in a darksome minor key billowing chords scale the heights atop building banks of sequencer runs. Discorded drones move below high harmonies in a vivid dimensionality - while the album's pattern pulsations provide a lively focus further in. As fleeting fragments of waveforms separate into dissonant splinters we feel spellbound across the five electronic conjurations - every tone colored and inflected with the mythic qualities of a natural synthesist. Most EM is meant merely to hold the attention. The Pulse of Life was expressly designed for our delight. The energy arcing through this work is an appeal to the imagination - where we may ponder that which is within and without. Moved by a sense of discovery Craig Padilla continues to re-imagine the potential of his music. Its light heightens our awareness of the dark, just as its ascendancy reveals a more illuminated realm - in its own order, its own unity, and declaration of hope.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 6 February 2025 |
