HOLY DOMAIN (COLLABORATION WITH KLAUS WIESE & CARSTEN AGTHE)

Prolific champion and generator of "sacred" "space" music Matthais Grassow here collaborates with classical ambient artists Klaus Wiese and Carsten Agthe to create a more meditative, less liturgical electronic music--one that sounds a lot like the music of past artists like POPOL VUH as well as future artist ALIO DIE.

1. "The Fire of Holy Eyes" (19:47) droning synth chord opens this up, creating quite a sacred, religious feeling, but then sarod and nicely-muted gently-played talking drums. Sitar, singing bowls, and shaker-like percussion instruments are added into the mix, thickening it up a bit but also giving it more of an outdoors, temple garden feel. By the 17th minute a sustained high synth chord reaches maximum volume while the stringed instruments back away (almost out) and percussive chimes and finger-bells receive more attention as the talking drum play also continues to calmly dominate from the low end. There's nothing really extraordinarily new or innovative here, other than the unusual presence of the talking drum (and the amazingly soothing effect it has). I really enjoyed this one. (36.75/40)

2. "Tranceformation - The Deepest Night of Soul" (38:07) the previous song doesn't seem to end so much as bleed under the start of this one. The hypnotic talking drum very slowly fades to background while a conga joins in, but the big difference is in the new presence of tambourine and clay drum up front and center and the sound of zither strums replacing the high synth drone and Indian stringed instruments. The rhythm pattern here is now less meditative and more propulsive: as if it were meant to support a walking meditation or even slow pilgrimage. After about ten minutes a looped pattern of electronic "whip cracking" sound becomes part of the rhythmic fabric as the zither continues to explore its speech-like abilities. After another ten minutes both the zither play and cracked whip sound seem to fade into the background (either do to volume adjustments in the engineering room or to their sounds being inuring and having now relegated them to background sound by a process of anesthetization) with only the drum machine-like rhythm track staying constant and of high volume. There do seem to be other night-Nature-sound percussives and mid-range synths somehow snuck into the mix. Oh, and did I mention the djembe and other low-end drums that have taken over the soul-numbing task held by the talking drum on the previous song? Yes, they are giving the pilgrims the mental balm to go along with the pads of their trudging feet. Though they've never really gone, the zithers start to make a comeback in the final eight minutes while the music as a whole seems to be going through a long and, at first, almost imperceptible very gradual slow down as well as volume recession. The slow down finally becomes obvious enough in the 33rd minute, with almost all rhythm instruments backing out (except for that indefatigable talking drum, hiding beneath all of the layers), eventually leaving only natural night noises and a wide assortment of wind chimes offering a wide variety of pitches and sounds. Not quite as effective--except for the initial "march" and third- quarter of mental numbness--as the previous song, nor is it quite as sacred feeling--due, mostly, I'd say, to that cracked whip sound. (66.5/75)

3. "In the Absence of Restlessness" (5:16) born of the previous song, this one very quickly attains its own identity despite the continued natural night noises. Gentle, self-meditative "garden" sitar and "distant" hand percussives are the main human manipulatives presented here--in the garden. (8.875/10)

4. "Satsang" (3:16) Tibetan singing bowls, reverbed "distant" triangles (or finger cymbals), and a droning synth note provide the lone accompaniment for the recorded sound of a sandaled walker in the gravel paths of the labyrinth in the Buddhist garden we've been privy to over the course of this hour of contemplative and, perhaps, uplifting spiritual music. (9/10)

Total Time 66:26

While I was not certain of the consistency of the "guided" spiritual experience presented by the four continuous songs of this album upon my first or second listens, I am now quite content with it; I feel as if I've been across the planet: trudging upon El Camino de Santiago, praying inside Chartres Cathedral, in sitting outside under the stars in a residential garden in Kathmandu, as well as immersed in the smokey incense while meditating inside a Tibetan monastery. What more could a piece of music offer?

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of beautifully-rendered Progressive Electronic music.