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Beyond Infinity
The Vacant Domain

As part of his ongoing re-release project, Jesse Sola of Numina has remastered and reissued his long out of print "Transparent Planet" disc, an album showcasing some of Sola's earlier work. It's an excellent collection of tracks and a wonderful insight into the talents and wonder inherent in the music of Numina from the very beginning of Sola's musical career.

Opening with "A Distant Gaze, Then Silence" we're treated to a number of pads and waves interweaving around eachother. Shaken tones tremble on the periphery and other sounds rise up to be heard for only an instant before disappearing into the soundpool. Simply lovely work. Track two, "Further Entwined (Early Mix)", is a slightly darker track, minor key chords swelling up and gaining in strength, the sounds of a moonlit tide ebbing and flowing. The sounds of darkness, vaguely unsettling, but still very engaging, drawing us in like a long standing mystery. This leads into "The Vacant Domain", a slowly building drone based piece where vague melodies and the sounds of steam continue to beguile the listener. It's quite a moving piece, very emotive despite it's minimal elements, a testimony to Sola's abilities. "Beyond Infinity" follows, a pulsing phrase repeating itself overtop a thick, shimmering wave. It's hypnotic, speaking to blood memory and collective DNA, slowly growing and shifting while alien voices are heard faintly in the background. A fine example of the kind of magic that fans of Numina have come to expect from his releases. "Interlude for K" is up next, a strikingly beautiful piece of music, an aural landscape where sweeping pads and waves create images of lush spaces and warm environments. You can't help but feel you are there, a secret location of wonder and magic formed through the music. "From a Darkened Path" features a haunting chorus of voices, the suggestion of woodwinds from distant planets accompanied by strange music unlike anything we're familiar with here on Earth. A visit to alien worlds, new cultures laid out before us to be seen and experienced. We return to more familiar (but no less beautiful) environments with "The Moments Before the Glass Shattered", a musical tone poem capturing a brief instant in time, a second of purity before change. Phrases repeat and morph, allowing us to examine them from a variety of angles, sides, shapes, forms, all in an effort to show the truth of that particular time. The disc closes with "Dustclouds on the Horizon", a slow cascade of tones that blends together to create a kaliedescopic soundfield, shifting and changing as the song progresses. Beautiful.

As with all his later releases, "Transparent Planet" is a fine showcase of Jesse Sola's talents as an ambient artist. From the way that he is able to manipulate sound to create a new atmosphere for the listener, to his ability to wring emotion and feeling from his work, to the way that he is able to create beautiful and striking work from such minimal sources, all of Sola's talents are on display in fine form. An excellent collection from the Numina back catalogue.

rik - ping things