Never judge a book by its cover.
07/20/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Never judge a book by its cover - a true lesson when it came to giving serious consideration to reviewing this disc. The cover design is just plain busy and unnecessarily gothic, giving away too much before you get to experience the real treasures held inside! OK, that aside, I am pleased to have given this one a
comprehensive spin. Nashville's own Brannan Lane couldn't be further from the Grand Ole Opry on the mesmerizing Cavern 1 - Black Air. Multiple dark ambient layers are richly drenched in a continuous flow of multi-tracked fountains. Thera (a volcanic island also known as Santorini), as stated on the cd jacket, is the Greek word for fear, and realizing its somber embrace is Lane's task on this hour long player. We hear angelic swirls, deep tonal gongs reverberating and building with percussive resonance. Having been heard on the radio broadcast show
Music from the Hearts of Space, this sound sculptor seems rightly fitted for the task of creating atmosphere. If this were a film soundtrack we see 20 story high cavernous and icy hollows and are surrounded by mystical enchanted haunted kingdoms. This disc renders the listener passive and encircled by its space.
Cavern II - Ancient Art continues to build on the growing cinematic harmonies building an arsenal of sound. Spirits rise up high and converge in a twisting iridescence on the short and effective Death from Above. Bodies of water drip, spill and flood throughout this adventure, at times quite stimulating, at other times menacing. Sea In The Dark is like a winding vessel reminiscent of surveying an imaginary alter-world, Atlantis perhaps? The illusions run deep here. Lane's ability to capture stimulant and visionary atmosphere comes from his work in multiple genres, from Caribbean to Country, from Trance to Blues.
Some may say this provocative composer may be reaching too far. I can only hope he opts for creating more work in this mode. There are a lot of repetitive sound themes over the generous hour here, but Lane brings us into a trance-like state and then Into the Light. On this final track it is as though we have
channeled to the other side of a virtual landscape. We have been released from the mysterious magnetic pull and sail away with a galaxy of wildlife. This, my first exposure, to an artist with a dozen or so recordings in his name, was certainly worth the trip!
-- TJ Norris"
This is a very dark passage to a place that only Lane can so
02/02/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Yo! Hello down there! Do ya need any more rope? Hey! You okay? Hey!"They each run towards the edge of the freshly discovered Theran Abyss, echoing its horrid silence, staring silently as the rope is pulled back up. Their friend is not there - the rope is a shredded mass of frayed ends. What they hear in the depths of the blackness beneath them is an indescribable miasma of gurglings and moans. A blast of methane-heavy winds suddenly creates an intense vortex around them. Vertigo overwhelms them in the midst of their confusion and panic. They become a tangled mass of flailing limbs, scrabbling for a grip on the slippery cave floor. All light has vanished and in the coldest of any darkness they have ever known, their screams mingle as one nauseating cry - they are unheard in the vast pit.Well that was fun! Yeah, Lane's soundtrack work, ambient feartrack, and noir places of dripping wet slime inspired me. Lane points out that "Thera" is the Greek word for fear - and such is the effect of his ambient art. This is that darkness of Robert Rich and old Lustmord. It is the crushing, smothering, paranoia and asphyxiating soundtunnels of the hopelessly claustrophobic. This is deep wetness, thick darkness, endless wanderings of places one needs to stay away from lest ye dieth amongst yon hellspawned ruins of things accursed and best forgotten. Drip, drip, drip, echoey essences, and horrific howlings of draconian behemoths aneath, greet your ears.Lane has crafted an extended meander beneath and within ancient caverns of nigh unto the Underworld's entry. You can hear the headwaters of river Styx and sense that nagging guilt that ye are in trespass of abodes of the charnel legions. Only dead and blind things be permitted to wander these regions. "What is your pleasure? The price ye ask? Yer soul, yer mind, and that VISA card - thou fool!"This is a very dark passage to a place that only Lane can so deftly create. This may really bother some listeners as it gets right next to "the fear complex" in the psyche. This is not music, not "a walk in the park" ambience - this is fear, this is a prelude to doom. If it were not for Lane releasing us in the final track, "Into the Light", one wanders if this might not be one of the most completely dank and dark releases I have experienced in year 2000. Lane - market this stuff to movie producers! It's great - spooked even me. ~ John W. Patterson"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1