Anantakara’s music blog
Reviews: Amor Mundi by Steve Sheppard
I have been fascinated by the musical journeys that Anantakara have taken me on over the last few years; these sojourns of electronic majesty have really been deeply artistic and utterly transfixing. The delight here is that I now have the good fortune to write about this latest release entitled Amor Mundi (Life as an Infinite Flow).
This journey of sight and sound starts with the track Shimmering Times,a piece so addictive to listen to, its ever expanding narrative draws the listener into a whole new realm of electronic magic.
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Show Me Your Wonder, has a delightful depth about its construction, listen intently to its tones and vast nature, then perhaps like me, you too will be pulled into a world of expressive and expansive brilliance, the staccato stringed elements and the percussive backdrop is all cleverly manipulated into a weave of musical genius which would become something truly special to behold.
Chthonic Memories contained a few effects that I have created on my own electric guitar to open with; this would lead us nicely to a portal of crafted and extremely artistic segments of music, which seemed to all have their own musical spheres to rotate within
As we move deeper into the album I would find one of my personal favourites, this gem is called Sister Moon.
There is something so tranquil and peace filled about this offering, its repeating energies also reminded me a little of an old style Eno offering called Discreet Music. The build here was also well worked, and its electronic nature and heart beat could be felt throughout the remainder of this truly superb offering.
As we nudge the musical envelope further across the table of tone, we come to a really fascinating track called Amo Ergo Sum.
Translated it means I love, therefore I am. This adds so much to its riveting ever onward movement; for me the underpinned fluency and explorative essence of this track made it another personal favourite.
The light textures of this next piece entitled The Riddle of a Soul,
were ones that brought us a fascinating insight into the compositional structure of the album, here we would find subtle and haunting flute sounds that created a wonderful new age feel, partnered with the stylish electronic motifs, it took the piece to a whole new level.
We are now in the second half of this fine collection of compositions, and as we constantly move forwards we find ourselves at a doorway marked Riding The Flickering Crests.
There was a tantalizing smoothness about this track that was deeply addictive, its subtleties altered ones perception in the middle half of the track, as a more percussive energy started to come to the fore, but always with the symbiotic partnership of the albums over all electronic nature.
Amor Mundi (Life As An Infinite Flow) is certainly one of those albums that you must not take your eye off, you may have to listen to it over and again to truly appreciate all the nuances contained within, like this next piece called Deus Sive Natura.
The keyboards manifest an imploring narrative within this piece, while the backdrop of string sounds and percussion do a blissful job of creating a sense of expectancy and tension, in what is the longest track off the album.
We have now entered a realm that is almost multi-fractal in nature; it is called The Matrix Time-Walk. Here is a piece that would be all too easy to get lost within, and in some ways reminds me in music, of the artistic endeavours of the Escher great work entitled Relativity. It is a track that is infinite and ever expanding in its surrealist nature.
The depths we have travelled now become apparent, as we now listen to a composition called A Secret Might.
Here the intensity of the offering is well hidden, allowing the natural order of the arrangement to come through on its own, and audibly grow; this is an amazingly crafted track that one could easily get carried away with, its beautiful sense of suspense and anticipation is a thing to revel in
L’avant-dernière offre s’appelle Strata.
La probabilité toujours présente de l’attente semble commencer à se réaliser ici, alors qu’un rythme percussif se joint à la mêlée et que l’artiste crée quelque chose de spectaculaire et presque cinématographique dans le style d’Isao Tomita.
The penultimate offering is called Irrésistible
and it truly is, and as an end composition one never really knows what is around the corner of this moment of musical cleverness, the bass work is perfect and the following electronic build and progression creates a dynamic and fluent end to what has been a captivating release.
Amor Mundi (Life As An Infinite Flow) is an album that all fans of electronic music, seekers of ambience and worshipers of truly artistic tones will adore, it’s a journey that never ends, but one that will create layer upon layer of expectation, intent and anticipation as you listen. If this appeals to your sense of musical perception, then you need to make this album a home in your musical world as soon as possible.