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It’s taken more than four years for Rudy Adrian to shape and complete this release, aimed to have a nice collection of tracks that give the feel of walking in the countryside. With this album, the New Zealand composer also says he tried to explore “what is ambient music” a bit further than before. “Where The Skylarks Sing” is actually one of the earliest tracks created for this project that survived the culling of tracks Rudy decided he didn’t like -about two album’s worth of music was thrown out before he settled on the final selection of tracks. Work on “Along the Coppermine Ridge” was kicked off right after “A Walk in the Shadow Garden” was done. Its music (with the realm of Budd & Eno again peeping around the corner) appears a(nother) dedication to stillness, imaginary landscapes and the beauty/healing power found, embedded in nature. In addition, the outcome features quite some of the same mysterious sounds and spheres, but this time these all are handled more attentively and implemented in the sound design in a far more subtle manner. The 62-minute “Along the Coppermine Ridge” doesn’t hold surprises though, its 11-pieces feature lots of familiar textures and pads known from Rudy’s previous recordings. But maybe, that’s also the goal as most Mr Adrian’s releases can be regarded as separate as well as interconnected aural journeys venturing into different directions as we travel through infinite landscapes. The slightly dissonant sounding opener “Castle Rocks” -which sees Rudy trying out a piano cluster chord- sets a dreamy, lush sphere while on “Ridgetop Clouds” the ambient magic slides in smoothly and easily. The eight-minute track is one of those sleepy tracks with slow developing washes that Mr Adrian sometimes writes. In this case he spent a bit more time making the bass notes subtly move and evolve -a musicality he hadn’t explored before. I for one love the cricket-sound-like stuff (the seventh piece “Moorlands” has them too) surfacing here occasionally as well as its pastoral sound design. The title piece, a live improvisation, also makes a solid mark with its driftwood of ethereal textures airing introspection and calm. It actually sounds quite similar to track 6 of “Beyond the Sleepy Hills”. The final track -the longer pieces again proof the strongest in my opinion- is also sonic beauty to immersive effect. All in all, and same as the previous albums, “Along the Coppermine Ridge” offers a few different styles: some tracks are slightly dark and spooky, others are more straight-forward ambient with a bit of piano sprinkled through and some are just soft, sleepy washes. A special note goes out to the beautiful cover image gracing the release, which was a treat for the composer. The picture comes from the book “The Forest World of New Zealand”, a collection of photographs celebrating New Zealand’s stunning landscapes. Since Rudy was about 12 years old, he’d admired the photography of New Zealand landscape photographer John Johns and often wondered how he’d go about getting one of his images on an album cover. In the end he was very pleased to discover recently that many of his images are now in New Zealand’s national museum and freely available for use. |
| Website: www.rudyadrian.magix.net
Website: rudy-adrian.bandcamp.com Website: www.spottedpeccary.com You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Rudy Adrian artist page Sonic Immersion © 2025 |
