Christopher Short is one half of the tribal-ambient duo Ma Ja Le, who first came to my attention via their protoplasmic journey with Vir Unis titled Imaginarium. Ma Ja Le have produced some fine multi-instrumental atmospheric music since that time; it's now Short's turn to go solo (following bandmate Paul Vnuk's excellent venture Silence Speaks in Shadow) with an intriguing two CD set: Duende.

Disc one, titled "Day," begins with the appropriately titled track "Cracks of Light, Chasing the Stars Away." I felt a familiar rush of excitement upon hearing the opening guitar work--very discernable guitar work, I might add. It was like hearing an updated and bluesy version of the first track on The Return of the Durutti Column, a longtime musical touchstone of mine. The first three tracks of "Day" continue in a light, airy, guitar-kissed manner--subtle, improvised, and pretty through and through. The third track, "Cyclotronic Cosmology" (these titles are a mouthful!) adds a bass player to make a muted jazz-ambient improv session. Throughout, Short has created a pastoral retreat from everyday frustrations, calling to mind a peaceful glen, occupied by kind Eloi-types--everyone here is free to do as he or she pleases. This feeling of mid-afternoons lazed away reading poetry to dusky lovers or watching clouds pass overhead is strongly supported by Short's talent in coaxing highly vaporous synth-like tones from his guitar. At this point, midway though the disc, the discernable guitar gives way to even airier passages. By the time "The Universe that Consumes Itself" and "Sundrift" are filling your head, you're so far gone you don't notice its absence.

The dreamer on the hillock has deserted the ground for more astral places by this point in "Day." "Twilight," the disc's closer, is a gentle drift of guitar and atmosphere with something that sounds like phasing. With music like this, it's very easy to let the day slip on by....

We are then brought to disc two, titled expectedly, "Night." Short could really play the devil's advocate with this one and hit us with the soundtrack to hell ... but you know you're in good, gentle hands as soon as track one, "Magnificent Pearls, the Stars Awake" drifts into your consciousness. The guitar of daylight is gone, replaced by the murky, mysterious expanse of the heavens. Sure, man may have defined stars as big masses of burning gases, ever combusting in violent energetic turmoil--but in Short's world, we're all still in ancient times, when the stars were to be worshipped, not understood like bacteria beneath a microscope. The beautiful, inverted bowl of night rotates above as "Night" plays. We continue our journey through "Cosmic Lava" (which sounds just like it reads and has a distinctly Serrie-inspired atmosphere) into the mammoth track "Phasefish; a Moon and Insect Panorama" which is a journey into deep interstellar black. This is not a dark that will swallow you whole, but rather an absence of light that cradles you as it whispers cosmic mystery after cosmic mystery into your languishing ears. This is the very best kind of traditional ambient, deep, infinite-sounding, but always quite inviting. Eventually the track opens up into a light vibratory realm: clearly you've reached the apex of the experience. This gives way to an extremely soft bubbling of "The Infinite Fabric of Dreams"--we're asleep in the cradle of life, waiting to be reborn into brilliant new day.

The final track begins, "Edge of Dawn" with a hint of further guitar to come, and the entire circadian rhythm begins anew. I know I was reaching for repeat on my player to relive this fabulous experience. It really doesn't get better than this, if light, gusty ambient journeys are your thing. I did have one jarring experience with the "Night" disc, where it appeared as if the volumes changed over the course of certain tracks. I like a fairly mid-range level, and certain points of the disc were much louder than others, even though I had not touched my volume control. It often shocked me out of my pleasant reverie.

And what a reverie it is! This is potent stuff ... live twenty-four hours in the space of two! But what dreams Short has packed into two hours, what lovely, writ-huge dreams!

Available at Atmoworks.

since July 15, 2003