Spirits in Ambience: Sahara (double CD album available at CD Baby)
This release from October 2008 offers 108 minutes of Middle Eastern music.
Spirits of Ambience is: Mark Peacock (on guitar, keyboards, santur), Charles Adelphia (on duduk and baritone saxophone), Scott Breadman (on percussion), Lanny Cordola (on guitar and balalaika), J’Anna Jocoby (on viola and violin), Mike Land (on drums), Roxanne Morganstern (on vocals), Michael Tovar (on guitar and cuatro), and Chuck Wright (on fretless bass).
This release defies classification. While possessing visible rock aspects, the music is heavily laced with ambient and chillout sensibilities, then everything is focused through a Middle Eastern lens which bestows an exotic flair on the music whether the pieces are atmospheric or overt.
Agile guitars and an assortment of ethnic string instruments conspire with steadfast drums to generate flowing tuneage designed to evoke desert vistas. The dreamy vocals drench this far-flung tableau with exotic overtones, a flavor that is further enhanced by mournful violin.
The guitars establish softly searing riffs that drift with lazy comportment. Their resonance seeps through the music like shimmering oil. The ethnic strings lend a foreign edge to that liquidity.
The percussion is sharp and determined, yet performed with restraint so that the rhythms embellish without being in-your-face.
The female vocals are of a non-lyrical nature, contributing choral threads that undulate like a vaporous serpent.
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Violin strains waft in the mix, generating a melancholic demeanor. The bass exhibits a geological buzz lurking deep in the tunes.
These compositions impress an Arabic seasoning on all genres of music, producing tuneage that is at once accessible and exotic. Strong rhythms blend with flowing harmonics, effectively enlivening a dreamscape with upbeat properties. Western fans of Eastern moods will thoroughly enjoy the band’s unique mixture of styles.



Sonic Curiosity