Autumn Continent
No sophomore jinx here. One year after the release ofSecret Observatory, his sterling U.S. debut, Swedish studio wiz Stefan Jonsson (a.k.a. Between Interval) pulls back the curtain on another absorbing museum piece for the ear,Autumn Continent. It is a work of mystery, shadowy moonscapes, and imagination-stretching audio vistas that spans 73 minutes over 10 seamless movements--a recording that could conceivably serve as the soundtrack for a futureTerminator 6, only without a pall of danger or anxiety clinging to the music. Jonsson's unhurried electronic textures evoke slowly changing images, often suggesting stark landscapes that could either be areas of emerging beauty or lifeless plains where the dust from an intergalactic apocalypse has begun to settle. He expands his palette of sounds onAutumn, introducing randomly struck bowls as an otherworldly form of percussion ("Submerged"), threading a Tangerine Dream-like electro-pulse into "The Tides of Time," even creating a rhythmic cadence that transports listeners above a vast, unknown sea ("Early Life Remainings"). It all contributes to an engrossing listening experience, making it easy to overlook the few occasions where Jonsson uses repetition to lend a hint of "musicality" to his sonic abstractions, briefly diminishing the distinctiveness of his sound. The overarching splendor of Jonsson's concepts is unmistakable and wholly involving, making him a space-music artist worthy of close attention.--Terry Wood