While I was commuting from my working place to the place where I live, today, in the late afternoon, while I was in the train, my Ipod, after Mozart and Chet Baker, selected this album by Adham Shaikh, Journey to the Sun... The late afternoon (or early evening) sun was shining and there was a surrealist light through the window of my train. I was among many commuters, going back to their places... I was sad and tired, hopeless and depressed, as sometimes (too often ?) it happens in my life, in others lives too, perhaps ?
Journey to the sun added a unique poetical and ambient touch to my commuting travel... Floating and ambient music, so deep, so far out, so minimal, so inspired, so tasteful, avoiding all the clichés of the chill out mode... Adham Shaikh has a unique way to blend Indian sitar or flute sounds with Western electronic layers and atmospheres (I guess he used, among other tools, an old ARP 2600 analogic modular synthesizer, since I am familiar with this instrument).
It reminds me Brian Eno and the pioneering experimentations of the Berlin School. It evokes too the sun of California, the light of the most creative New Age trend, with musicians like Iasos or.. Aeoliah (who is German by the way...).
It creates a unique atmosphere, blending ambient sounds, found voices, soundscapes from the street with floating electronic climates... It is not the cosmic space of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, it is the ambient soundscapes of our contemporary world and cities, where languages, traditions, cultures are trying to melt together in a creative way...
Journey to the Sun is a true chill out album. I followed the path and I found the light of a hopeful horizon at the end of a bad day...
Could a musical blogger be subjective sometimes and talk about himself ?
Any good blog is the mirror of the real guy behind...
At least, I would love to think so...
Please, listen to Journey to the Sun by Adham Shaikh. One of the most original ambient music waiting to be discovered...
NB: the link was deleted upon request. Please, buy this great album on emusic or on Itunes Store...
