John Lyell & Brent A. Reiland - Synthetic Universe

3.5

Release data:

John Lyell & Brent A. Reiland – Synthetic Universe
CD, Private release, 2002

“Synthetic Universe” is the second cd of this Minneapolis-based duo that made quite an impression in the scene with their debut-cd “Wormholes” in 1998.

This is another fairly strong effort in traditional spacemusic, but John Lyell & his musical companion Brent A. Reiland also dare to do their own thing by weaving seduced tribal-percussion (“Cosmic Serengeti”), deep bass-tones and intimate flute sounds into their slow-morphing, sometimes slightly repetitive sound textures.

The album clocks over 77 minutes, offering ten tracks that spread out the universe before the listeners ears. This journey would be a perfect companion to a planetarium show, where you step into deep space, not knowing what will come along the way.
Next to various mysterious and darker shades also more lighter, serene elements and spacy touches can be heard in the music. In addition, some vague melodies, intimate flute and piano sounds are nicely carried away by the duo’s soaring synthesizer washes without things getting new-agy.
“Enigmatic Muse” or “Light Years Away” e.g. get you in the same relaxed atmosphere as Jonn Serrie’s “Tingri” of “Flightpath”.

To my modest opinion, John and Brent only make 1 small mistake in “Zone 5”, where they infuse some slightly experimental touches in the music, which isn’t appropriate to the other tracks.

Nevertheless, “Synthetic Universe” will do very well next to the cosmic recordings of Meg Bowles, Glenn Deardorff or Jonn Serrie.

Website: www.johnlyell.com

You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the John Lyell artist page