| Artist: Living Dreamtime Album: Exploring the Water Element Released: 2002 | 
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The meeting between New Age music and digital sampling technology begot a pile of releases whose main feature was snippets of whale songs arbitrarily mixed above crudely fashioned and syrupy tunes. Fortunately, music that seriously ponders the relationship between introspective synthesizer tones and oceanic wildlife is no longer stigmatized by prior passing fads. Exploring the Water Element (71'15") by Living Dreamtime (a.k.a. Tor Linlokken) is an immersing soundscape of environmental minimalism. It is not only a pleasant, relaxing and introspective listening experience, but also recognized for its explorations into sound, tonality, the nature of music and the music of nature. Exploring the Water Element makes extensive use of a range of aquatic field recordings. The sounds of churning surf, lapping tides and the clicks, bellows and wails of sea creatures large and small are wonderfully augmented by synth tones and harmonic pads. This is music from a living environment - nothing sounds mechanical or electronic. The nine tracks crossfade easily between one another and the listener drifts gently along on a current of marine seascapes and synthesizer drones and pads. This drenching experience takes you out of the everyday and into an aquarian realm whose friendly inhabitants travel through muted blue-green light in schools and pods. Two thirds of our planet is covered by water. With this album Living Dreamtime offers a sonic meditation on the vastness of the underwater realms. It is a homage to waves against the shore and leviathans of the deep. Perhaps, while sleeping, the world is dreaming this music.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 15 July 2004 | |