Review Summary: A fitting title!
Ambient music tends to invoke nostalgic memories for me, it also transports me to an alien planet. It almost literally does both because as I listened to The Blue Dunes I felt a part of something bigger. The lush, ethereal warmth of the synth tones has a gravitational pull on me; once I thought I was free from its power, I was sucked back. The fantasy setting is stellar - or should I say interstellar? What begins as an ordinary ambient album melts into sci-fi opera escapism - jetpack included.
One can expect cascading sounds dripping into each other. Despite the nuance of these often psychedelic, melodic sweeping patterns a certain atmosphere is anchored. How the soundscape makes you feel is your decision, but I don’t believe anyone could exit this musical journey without observing the naturalness of the creation. It isn’t simply effects and synths, the world built feels strikingly familiar, almost as though I previously lived there. The beauty of these relaxing synth pads settled me in further for a truly encapturing spectacle.
I cannot give full points to the album for a couple reasons. The feeling of
been there, done that is quite apparent, it’s not a classic release by any means. It’s also background music that is often easy to tune out. Ambient music does have that effect, music to fall asleep to, it can be seen as a compliment. Still, there were definitely moments that dragged and seemed to be leading to nowhere.
One might say that the familiar sounding synths - almost certainly mirrored by previous ambient artists - brings a warm nostalgia. Thus, I could imagine some ambient snobs considering this a derivative effort. I just don’t care, to be frank. A testament to this album is I was able to sit through the whole thing and greatly enjoy it. I didn’t get bored, and I didn’t want to skip a track - I have ADHD, I get bored very easily. Background music it certainly is, but what it does in the background is magical.
