EARTHSHINE – Abstract Patterns

Rock Company 2017

EARTHSHINE –
Abstract Patterns

Enchanting ornaments to try and measure harmony in algorithms – or simply relax and let the world go by.

Mostly known for his AOR endeavors such as FOREST FIELD, Peter Cox may surprise a lot of listeners with this project that’s been running for a few years now – although “running” would be an antonym to what’s going on here. Unfolding in slow motion, the instrumental picture is close to the edge of new-age but, unlike many a similar album, there’s also slight unpredictability in its mesmeric melodies, and a hidden laughter, too, which is a rare outcome of meddling with meditative music.

For all the record’s serious serenity, it’s also humorous: anyone familiar with object-oriented paradigm will smile at the title of the finale, “Abstract Factory Pattern” – a life-affirming track whose vibe is different from the preceding cuts – whereas MIDI-guitars make “A Piece Of Pi” flutter in raga-flavored ether, and two simultaneously floating motifs turn “A Parallel Rewriting” into hypnagogic adventure. If “Fibonacci Fever” sets the tunes on the right course thanks to a majestically smoldering piano line and the weightless shimmer of synthesizers that seem to convey some secret message while traveling from the background state to the fore, “Destructive Objects” offers an almost static scintillation of cosmic matter.

Much more spaced-out, “Circle Of Five” has its soundscape in transit from chamber music to prog rock, yet “Effortlessly Random” is baroque-minded all the way through, with a barely-there percussion of “Chaos Flow” dissolving the epic’s grandiosity in limbo. Still, abstractness doesn’t leave any of these compositions, so they exist only for the duration of any given track – which is a usual fate of a variable – but, as an ambient soundtrack to an array of moments they’re as good as it gets.

***2/3

April 22, 2018