Artist: Darshan Ambient Tracklist: 1. Falling Light 2. Small Blue Ones 3. A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky 4. Out To Sea 5. Second Thoughts 6. The Night Coming Home To Sleep 7. Clothed In Wakefulness 8. Who Will Answer 9. To Look At In Winter 10. The Immense Window 11. Water For Horses 12. Forgotten Sky
Falling Light is the fifth inspired instrumental release on the Lotuspike imprint by award-winning ambient artist Darshan Ambient (aka American-born multi-instrumentalist and composer Michael Allison). The trademark hypnotic and heartfelt style that has come to define all Darshan Ambient releases is certainly present here in the skillful use of multi-layered percussion, synth textures, bass, and guitar grooves. Allison’s unmistakeable compositional style is in top form, delivering thoughtful melodic phrases and themes with a familiar atmosphere.
Picking up where 2011’s Dream In Blue left off, which skillfully straddled a delicate musical line between ambient and jazz, Falling Light finds Allison moving more towards an almost ambient Americana sound at times. The deliberate use of lap steel and slide guitars blended with synth textures that seem to stretch to the horizon, brings to mind visions of wide open spaces, big skies and endless possibilities. As Allison says, “It’s very visual. There are some beautiful lap steel guitar sounds that I used a little on the last album, but wanted to completely feature on this one; they add a gorgeous twang to some of the tracks. There are a few tracks dominated by the use of piano, but most have the wonderful sound of the lap steel/slide guitar — very dreamy.”
Michael Allison effortlessly crosses many musical borders journeying throughout this remarkable Darshan Ambient recording; From the opening jazz-tinged title track, the melancholy Mark Isham-esque trumpet of “Small Blue Ones,” the hypnotic groove that surfaces in the midst of “A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky,” the soul-searching depth of “The Immense Window,” to the closing classically-inspired choral fugue that is “Forgotten Sky.” With it’s warm washes of ambient color and elegant melodic passages, Falling Light blazes a trail into the wondrous hues of an ambient Americana sunset.
