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If music can reflect the glow of galactic light, Kevin Kendle's Deep Skies series is it. Lagoon of Eternity (69'50") is the second volume, and possesses a fascinating emotional depth in a genre that has become devalued through its own success. This effort departs the two-dimensional spirit world of New Age music to capture moments where the chaos of the universe comes together in perfect composition. Kendle's synthesizers produce lush pads of ethereal harmony. The swirling clouds of slow moving sounds are pleasantly intoxicating in their portrayal of his romance with the spirituality of space. Less inspiration than presence, this CD enshrines the early expansive works of Iasos, Jonn Serrie, Michael Stearns, Steve Roach and Giles Reaves - here recollected in tranquility. Kendle is joined on a number of tracks by synthesist Nigel Shaw and guitarist Brian Abbott, the later turning in performances pulsing in the fine afterglow of glissando guitar legends Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage. Lagoon of Eternity keys into the spiritual and physical aspects of the cosmos. Kendle demonstrates a masterful grasp of both the cosmological ideas upon which these nine realizations are based and the technology he uses to create his works. Kendle is an interpreter of what is observed in the night sky. Lagoon of Eternity succeeds where raw science data fails. His music seems simple but is meant to evoke complex meditations on the majesty of space; in hopes that at the close of these dreamy explorations, we return to the Earth and know the place as if for the first time.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 12 January 2007 |
