Waterbone

Tibet (World Disc)
by Scott Hefflon

I have a confession to make: I like Tangerine Dream and the Enya CD that acted as soundtrack to Steve Martin’s L.A. Story (Watermark, I think it was). Waterbone drift with a similar exotic-meets-cheesy-synth motion as TD, bringing the tinkle of jingle bells, Gregorian chants, lush choirs, and all sorts of instruments sounding vaguely Indiana Jonesian to a very dancy form complete with extremely inorganic keyboard sounds. Olive-skinned women yodeling (wailing, howling, praying, whatever the hell they’re doing), men robustly offering choral back-up, sounds skitting in and out of consciousness, all layered over a full percussion package not unlike New Order or early Pet Shop Boys – sound intriguing? Well, it certainly is. Every cliché in the dog-eared book of New Age/pseudo-spiritual/exotica-cum-electronica is represented here. Even those wind chimes I have yet to ever find outside of albums such as this. Ditto with the breathing organs. I have no idea if, in its proper perspective, this is considered “good,” I know only that I have it, I’m not lending it out, and I’ll listen to it repeatedly late at night when the constant bombardment of sound and fury have worn me out. Some songs are soothing, others somewhat haunting, all enjoyable when you’re feeling quiet, open to the swaying shifts of emotion bands such as this evoke. And it’s over an hour long so you don’t have to break the mood by choosing another CD.
(PO Box 1360 Minocqua, WI 54548)