Parikrama
David Parsons is a New Zealand veteran of deep-space music. But for the last decade, he's been traversing Indonesia, India, Armenia, and the Middle East. From his travels, he's recorded and compiled definitive collections of traditional music, among them the 17-volumeMusic of Islamseries. Now Parsons has returned to New Zealand, cranked up his synthesizers, and put out three albums of his own music in little more than a year, all of which draw from his travels.Parikramais his latest and most difficult to enter. A soundscape work on the order of his 1992Dorje LingCD, Parsons creates a trans-Asia electronic world. Mixing synthesizers with droning tambouras, chanting voices, and whining bowed strings, Parsons orchestrates what he calls a "parikrama" or circumambulation of Mt. Kailas in Tibet. Judging from the music, this must be a foreboding place and a perilous trek. Of his recent albums,Ngaio GamelanandShaman,Parikramais easily the most inhospitable, lacking the melodic and rhythmic signposts that guided you through those albums. He doesn't hit a groove until 50 minutes into the first disc and it's a welcome contrast. Parsons moves from densely packed soundscapes like "Darshan" and "Kang Rinpoche" to airy echoes of Tibetan singing bowls on "Inward Journey" and dream-state synthesizers on "Gurla Mandhata."Parikramais a fascinating, richly textured trip, but perhaps one for the initiated.--John Diliberto