Wanderlust

Terra Ambient | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 9, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lotuspike
• ASIN: B0027WNO6Q
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,737 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terra Ambient - Wanderlust, June 29, 2009

By 

J. Jury "Morpheusmusic.co.uk" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wanderlust (Audio CD)

STYLE
Ambient worldbeat fusion. Wanderlust is a dramatic album of cinematic ambience and globally influenced rhythmic soundscaping. The lush textures on the CD are formed through a combination of dense layers combining synthesisers and treated guitars, yet despite this emphasis on artificial sound sources, the music here is very organic in nature even before the additional international instruments make an appearance. The beats are a somewhat hypnotic blend of programmed sounds and hand percussion - Taos drums, frame drums, congas and other real skin surfaces softening the distantly tribal grooves. Sequencer patterns tinkle, shakers rattle, bansuri and didgeridoo lift or deepen the drones.

MOOD
The mood of Wanderlust is at times one of dramatic expanse - the thick beds of sound suggestive of immense vistas and open skies. In other places the mood darkens and Terraambient wanders into shadowy freeform zones of mystery. The general pace of the album is ponderous, unhurried - the bulk of the tracks welling up gradually around beatless introductions, the percussion arriving well along into the music. The final two recordings are beatless - the concluding piece featuring some gentle piano and environmental recordings evoking visions of the sun emerging after rainfall - a very attractive piece and the most overtly melodic of the suite.

ARTWORK
Wanderlust arrives in a jewelcase with a two panel insert. Front cover imagery appropriately features a sweeping landscape open to the enormity of a cloud thickened sky. A somewhat more intimate scene of similar tone appears on the rear - here smoothed out with motion blur. The track titles and brief credits find a place here as well as website and Myspace details for Terraambient. The Insert holds what appears to be a candid image of the artist in a private home on the remaining outer section. Opening up an effulgent spray of sunbeams descend from dark, dark clouds - a panorama filling both panels. Further information is on the leftmost - a paragraph on the Wanderlust project followed by a gear list, thanks and other explanatory snippets.

OVERALL
Jeff Kowal otherwise known as Terra Ambient returns after a five year gap with his latest album Wanderlust released via Lotuspike Records. The 2004 album The Gate was initially the springboard for the new work with the intention being to build on the strictly live and acoustic approach employed for that album. However, things change and music tends to go where it will - consequently the new material has a heavy synthetic content, a blend of world instruments and programmed sound, rich fusions of percussion sources. Jeff has been making music now for over fifteen years and the seven new compositions here benefit from his formal training, multi-cultural musical interests and forays into television, film and galley installation.

WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM
Wanderlust might well appeal to fans of Steve Roach, Na-Koja-Abad - less minimal than extreme ambient by a long way. The Lotuspike site includes samples of a number of tracks and the Terraambient site includes a video of the artist discussing the album.

[...]

5.0 out of 5 stars The most colorful, refined and polished work of Jeff Kowal!!!, July 16, 2011

By 

Richard Gurtler - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wanderlust (Audio CD)

Jeff Kowal aka Terra Ambient has released his 3rd album (2nd on Lotuspike) just before the summer of 2009, so quite a long time passed since 2004 when his previous applauded "The Gate" album was released. The album opens very quietly with "Myth", but this piece grows slowly into more dramatic and grandiose parts featuring harsh guitars. Quite a radical change when comparing to more peaceful soundscaping of "The Gate". But don't be scared, this fresh blend of deep atmospherics, tribal beats and expressive guitars is another step in Jeff's highly crafted and refined sound sculpting. His tribal ambience finely infused with right amount of roughness sounds absolutely exciting, a truly extraordinary listening experience from the very beginning of "Wanderlust"!!! "Mudfoot" is another standout piece carefully melting electronics with wide range of acoustics, highly turbulent composition, again enriched by treated guitars. What a beauty! Mysteriously deep atmospherics on "Visionquest" later transform into percussion-driven texture with crispy pulsing electronics, a really ear-catching cut! Organics open title track "Wanderlust", but soon this composition moves into absolutely exciting level where deeper washes and gentle tribal beats are spiced by expressive flutes, didgeridoos, bells and strange otherwordly sounds. Man, this must be one of the most sophisticated and distinct tracks Jeff ever made and also one of my personal faves in the genre!!! "Mammoth" attracts with its more minimal structure with slowly developing and more active rich desert ambience. Deeper drones on "Epilogue" are nicely colored with storm sounds and highly evocative flute work, primordial ambience at its best!!! Album closer, "The Ghost In Me", is another highly nature-influenced track, this time attractively colored with delicate piano tunes, but also by additional guitar ambience magics of Jeff Pearce. A track with truly tranquilizing effect! What to write at the end? "Wanderlust", with outstanding sound quality, is not only the most colorful work of Terra Ambient, but also the most refined and polished one showing skilled artistry of this Lotuspike co-owner. Great job, Jeff!!! You can be sure that "Wanderlust" takes me each time on my own journey.

Richard Gürtler (Bratislava, Slovakia)