Very few recordings can be labeled as “monumental,” but Waterworks from the quintet Archetribe might qualify for the term. It’s not just that this 2-CD set represents two totally disparate takes on “ambient” music (the first disc features powerful pulsing ethno-tribal/fusion at its finest while the second disc contains spacious, drifting, and haunting soundscapes), but how potent the music on both discs is, how proficient and inspired the musicians play, and how the overall impact is positively mesmerizing, whether one seeks energetic and infectious electro-acoustic grooves and melodies or mysterious floating darkly tinted sonic portraits.

Graced with a stunningly beautiful cover featuring a woman standing in ankle-deep water at dusk, holding a candle over her head as if offering a beacon to ships at sea (photo by David Mendelsohn), Waterworks simply stuns the listener. Matthew Davidson (bass, gamelan, guitar, keyboards, percussion, voice, war guitar), Gunnard Doboze (clarinet, duduk), Philip Lampe (sitar, touch guitar), Billy Miller (bouzouki, flutes, guitar, harmonium, percussion, sitar, tambura, whistles) and Grant Smith (percussion) weave and wend their way through furious (and subtle) explosions of rhythm, delicate threads of sensual melodies, and layer upon layer of cross-cultural/genre-blending music. There are literally jaw-dropping moments scattered throughout the CD, such as on the first track “From Birth to Death” from whence amidst pulsing frenetic assorted ethnic hand percussion an almost unearthly haunting female wordless vocal arises. It sends chills down my spine every time. The music then spirals into a rapid tempo blend of electronica synthesizers and organic percussive rhythms, with the mysterious fluid lines of the duduk hovering above it all.

There’s the marriage of Gamelan, cello and duduk on “Dissociative Fugue,” and the toe-tapping energy of “Passages” which layers minor tonalities under spirited beats alongside flitting flute work. “Boundaries I” will appeal to fans of Tuu and o yuki conjugate, as it slows down the percussion a bit and adds multiple layers of swirling flutes and drones, painting a portrait of a world drenched in shadow. “Siew” employs state-of the-art electronics, juxtaposed with Middle Eastern/Northern African percussion and reverbed/echoed bell tones with the duduk once again rising above it all. “Hubris” represents another slowed-down less frenetic (but still rhythmic) exploration of ethno-tribalism. The ending cyber-pulses bring the first disc to a memorable close.

The set’s second disc contains six tracks with the longest being the fifteen-plus minute “Letting Go.” As mentioned earlier in this review, the selections here are drifting ambient music (with some occasional sparse rhythms), usually leaning to the darker side yet still very fluid and melodic, even melding with spacemusic elements at times, such as on the opening “Womb” which slowly undulates in washes of warm synthesizers and lush synth strings. “Hope” allows subtle electronic pulses into the mix and also features muted duduk blended with the electronic ambience. “Letting Go” contains the most overt rhythms (played on hand percussion, such as water drum) on this latter disc, but the piece is still subdued when compared to the cuts on the first disc. The song evolves through several stages over its fifteen minutes, containing both shimmering “light” synths and washes and also darker drone-like tones and textures. “Barely Contained” belies its title at the outset, as it starts off as perhaps the most restrained ambient piece here, very beautiful yet also haunting. Later in the cut, dramatic strings impart a strong neo-classical feel to the music, almost cinematic in impact, before submerging into an ethereal solo wordless vocal and clock-like ticking percussive effect. “Boundaries II” melds airy flute with shadowy electronics, again drawing comparisons to Tuu or similar artists. The disc concludes with “Gyokuro,” with whispers of drones, washes, and wisps of melody coalescing and breaking apart like different colored inks in a pan of water.

Waterworks contains some of the best music in either the ethno-tribal ambient (with more than a dash of world fusion thrown in) or floating ambient subgenres released in the last few years. That both discs come from the same group of five musicians surely stands as a testament to both their skills and their artistic vision. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It simply stands alone this year as a singular achievement in ambient music.

- Bill Binkelman

Purchase now at Amazon.com CDBaby Backroads Music (800.767.4748)

Download now at iTunes Music Store.

return to archetribe home