Allison scores with "Pastoral Ambience"
by
AmbientWorld
Michael Allison (a.k.a. Darshan Ambient) continues to refine his pastoral ambient soundscape music on The Zen Master's Diary, his latest release. As he has done on the three albums I have previously reviewed, Allison has found a way to take seemingly simple musical elements and combine them in ways that yield amazingly sublime results. The music on The Zen Master's Diary is so suffused with calm and patience that it like's bathing in warm water under a starry sky. You'll feel yourself start to float away, not in a literal sense, but in the sense of having your cares lifted from you, as if they were tangible garments. I have a difficult time describing the emotional reaction I have to Allison's music with any lucidity because, to me, this is intensely personal music, meant to be shared only with those whom one loves.
Musically, Allison continues to mix minimal-repeated phrase piano with subtle synthesizer shadings. The music is almost always in a major key, which is what makes Darhsan Ambient's music so different from other minimalists, such as Eno, James Johnson,et al. This "positivity" (or warmth, if you prefer) is why I describe his songs as being "pastoral." You might also start to use the term "neo-classical" in regard to some of the tracks on The Zen Master's Diary, especially "Night Shot of Earth" on which Allison composes a soft adagio-like piece through the use of various synthesized strings (on headphones, you should actually be able to "hear" the various string instruments, e.g. violins, violas, cellos, even basses). Delicate piano enters the song later and is well-balanced in how it is integrated with the strings. What can I say? Impressive is too under-stated a term to describe how well-executed and engineered this guy's music is.
Sometimes, Allison allows more "electronic keyboards" to take center stage (such as on "Quieter Still ") and he weaves gossamer-thin strands of ambient/new age gentility. However, the piano is never far away and usually is folded into with the keyboards before any song gets too deep into its evolution. You might be reminded of certain aspects of Tim Story on "Quieter Still ," except that Story so seldom deals with major key tones (preferring the more melancholic minor notes and chords). Also, where Story's repetition is recognizable (in a most agreeable way, as it is intended), Allison instead sometimes opts for a more free-flowing and improvisatory sound to his piano, as if it is a meandering stream.
Among the nine tracks, there is enough diversity (if one looks for it) to keep a jaded listener interested (the whooshing ebb/flows of synths that opens "Drawing Water" caressed underneath by shimmering washes, Liquid Mind-like lush clouds of keyboards on "It Has Begun," the nostalgic drama of the opening violins on "The Rightness of Things" which then morphs into a lower register piano number reinforced with subdued synth choruses).
A casual fan of ambient music might listen to Autumn Light, Darshan Ambient, Providence, and then this album (all in a row) and hear nothing but the similarities, missing the significant differences in nuance and instrumentation, as well as the gradual evolution toward a less minimal sound than the artist began with on Autumn Light. However, I think Michael Allison has enough of a following that those who have appreciated his previous works will wrap their arms around The Zen Master's Diary in the same loving embrace as they reserve for their dear friends. For, in essence, that is what Darshan Ambient's music is about: warmth, love, tenderness, and finding comfort in the midst of a crazed world. Using this gifted artist's music as your life's soundtrack will ensure that at moments of turmoil, you will always have a safe harbor to return to in order to quell your fears. Highly recommended.
Review by Bill Binkleman
