Tranzit's first album is quite nice for a debut effort. Tranzit's main influences come from the '70s and '80s, and this album certainly takes one back to those early electronic composition days. In particular, fans of the mid '80s progressive electronic period ought to check this out.
The first song, "Lowlands" starts off with a very nice arpeggiated sequence. The rhythm builds from this and the overlaid instrumentation on top of the song keeps it fresh. "Nostalgia" follows, evoking the feelings of a cold arctic day with wind sounds and high-end strings. "DesertDust" is classic progressive electronic starting out with a small sequence, gradually adding in elements and building up to a nice, pleasing texture. Overall, it's one of the better songs on the album.
"Rick's Theme" is mostly solo piano with some soft added synthesizer elements. "Quiet Waters" is a constantly evolving, phased, yet lightly textured song. "Alexandria" has a slow, short synthesizer theme with an electronic groove. "Cryptonite" is next: a sequenced synthesizer piece very similar to Tangerine Dream's work on Miracle Mile. "After Age" follows and is a different synthesizer piece from the rest. It reminded me more of Mars Lasar's recent work. "L.F.O." is a nice, slow piece that begins with quiet textures and ends with slow, new wave jazz grooves. The album concludes with "Anklung" a bright-textured chordal synthesizer piece.
The instrumentation is quite nice, evoking a wide variety of textures and moods. The cover artwork, featuring reflective glaciers, is quite nice and sets the mood well.
