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Oceanic (51:51) by Jeff Greinke offers us another chance to step inside his story, to hear something from where he dwells and maybe even find something of ourselves. This tenderly observant aural drama dares to be thought provoking. Utilizing a variety of grainy then cloudy synthesized and digital emanations Greinke confidently manufactures the nine vividly breathing, softly building pieces that make up this album. With all the pleasures of poetry blooming within this slow dance of timbre and tone we find the feelings that are generated running ever deeper, until we wake to our own response. Ominous drones one moment, then elegantly executed piano phrases the next, Oceanic is at times slowing, at times transporting - providing a constancy of adventure for the cerebral state. Some tracks extend in blank strains of gently colliding sounds, yet others cling to the ears in an expressive range of sonic shades and musical mutations. Hints of piano arise from beneath a roomy reverberation to mingle and loom above eddies of echoing electronics and flowing zones of drones. Emerging from a sustaining consonance unforced notes materialize - exerting their own freedom in a gradually transforming complexion and hue. As soundscapes coalesce into an indecipherable ambient fog the current keeps moving, churning in slow tides and chilled depths. As it moves between vivid textures and indefinite atmospheres our navigation of Oceanic always feels precise in its approach of something essential. Give yourself over. This is a realm you want to visit. From the quietly intense and eerily expectant, to calm chords of comfort Oceanic presents a play of shadows for the dreamer equally against remarkable drops into discovery for the disciple. Throughout his many years and notable works Jeff Greinke has been suggesting that our world's will to create will outlast its will to destroy. To know this music this well is to care about it and its listeners quite deeply - which inspires his search for those invisible waves that drift one soul closer to another.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 1 February 2024 |
