Dan Pound - "Medusazoa"
(PoundSounds 2011)
Dan Pound - "Medusazoa"
(PoundSounds 2011)
From Aural Innovations #43 (October 2011)
Atmospheric sound creation is at the fundamental core of Medusazoa. It is ambient and slow paced throughout, its synthesized structures are minimal and etheric, as they play with the concept of underwater environments, revealing the aquatic dreams of the jellyfish and the sombreness of the willick, as if it were only yesterday that I mingled amongst them with my seaweed helmet and cockleshell shield, meditating in the kelp forrests stoned! Yes, we've all been there! Haven't we?
The sound in question is totally synthesizer based, and it throws out similarities to later era Klaus Schulze more so than it does to Tangerine Dream, and even though there is an essence of Tangerine Dream I feel that it sits better with good old Klaus. There is a subtleness of tone that evolves from start to finish, and headphones, I feel, are a must because of this as it is the way that nature intended. It also guaranties the listener the journey that they so desire without the distractions of the outside world. The production is very good and on the whole it is an interesting venture and concept. I like it.
Dan Pound has captured a feel here that is very meditative and subduing and has produced a CD worthy of nods from even the most hardcore of synthesizer fiends. He has taken the basis of drone and took it somewhere outside that mindset, which for me is a must as certain drone music cannot escape the drone. Medusazoa certainly escapes the drone over its 70 minutes or so and moves into beat and composition, repetitive as it may be, but that is no hardship. You may feel you have already heard this track within the last track, but that is the subtleness of its evolution. No wild changes in sound here, just one steady journey from the beginning to the end. Nice work.
For more information you can visit the Dan Pound web site at: http://www.danpound.com
Reviewed by Albert Pollard