Ethernet :: Tanuki Dreams (gterma)

A magic theatre that encourages the mind to wander and get lost, listeners understood as receivers of stimuli in an environment of sensory patterns to be enjoyed.

Rabindranath Tagore once wrote, “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.” Each piece on Tim Gray´s retrospective of self-released, unreleased, digital and compilation tracks from 2008 to 2012 is sculpted round and cumulus and certainly add colour to our skies. Tanuki Dreams, released by an admirable Swedish label and richly illustrated with photos by founder Johan Rehn, opens with “Wind Memories,” lightly gusting, the flutter of prayer flags against a blue sky, before taking on an increasingly earth-toned, inclement mood on “Northern Temple” (while later, at the “East Temple,” the atmosphere is cheerier, the acoustics more bell-toned). “Kamo River” flows, tumbles and cascades. The very soil of “Deserted City” throat-sings beneath the chirp of a lone cricket, joined by a lone, bemused pianist repeating the same phrase, going in circles.

Tanuki Dreams is music barely divorced from the overall landscape. It limns thought and mood, not shape or figure. It is an estimable body of work, poetic and unassuming, no more so than on “Rain Spirits (Stones),” that barely dares make itself heard.  A magic theatre that encourages the mind to wander and get lost, listeners understood as receivers of stimuli in an environment of sensory patterns to be enjoyed. Like cloud watching. Is the peaceful only chimerical? “Reversal of Time” cannot really alter the direction of time’s arrow, but it clears a space for temporary refuge from its flight in order to enjoy essence.

Tanuki Dreams is available on gterma.