An album release from Airspace delivers a set of soundscapes and textures that blend together creating an almost cinematic atmosphere, each with its own approach and vibe, set of sounds and undertones but everything has a way of connecting and coming together almost like chapters of a book or scenes of a film.
The Cricket Cipher album has a beautiful vastness to it and that spaciousness creates a way for you to become engulfed in the sounds that are swimming around in the air that surrounds you and this is quite a beautiful thing because you don't come across it often.
You have synth pads and keys along with various levels of percussion and at times this mixing of natural and digital instrumentation and this instrumental release creates moods and again, atmospheres so once you step into this record you are escaping reality in a way.
Certain tracks let you paint vivid images in your head or tell stories to yourself because the songs themselves have those moods and those layers that take you to these other places so, when you listen to the record you're pulled away from your surroundings and into these other worlds for chunks of time.
You hear elements of jazz, funk, ethereal and eclectic color that come through as you listen to the record, and it all takes you on this wondrous sort of Journey.
By the time you get halfway through the record you begin to expect the unexpected and there are indeed some surprises around the corners, but you come to love them and want more of them.
One of the things that really hit me is the percussion on the record because it's outside the box as this whole record tends to be and you feel like you've stepped into a cinematic landscape with waves of tones and textures that wash over you.
It's all graceful in a way and quite beautiful as well and you can tell that it comes from someone that has a real love for putting together and building sounds themselves along with composing and arranging in a unique fashion.
Brian Shankar Adler is one of the main people behind this release along with Mike Effenberger collaborated for the purpose of creating something special and although songs are composed and put together in certain ways, some of this record is very improvisational as well which of course comes from Adler's jazz background.
Upon some deeper digging I found that Adler is someone who's performed in forests and caves along with Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center to give just a few examples.
So, you can see that the spiritual and ethereal side of what he does is everywhere in terms of his creation and his performances.
This record is no exception to any of that as it is beautifully woven and it's easy to tell that Brian has an absolute love for his craft as does Mike.
This was a brilliant collaboration and release that comes through expansive.
I suggest listening to the entire record because you won't get anywhere near the full spectrum of what the album has to offer by listening to only one or two tracks, and I also think you should be doing this with headphones on so you can really soak it in the way it was meant to be.
Take a deep dive into this one when you get a chance.
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