Maitreya: The Future Buddha
Global traveler and chronicler David Parsons creates a deep space meditation onMaitreya, which opens like a Tibetan space ritual.  Employing the chants of Tibetan monks like synthesizer colors, he descends into a rolling drone zone of layered harmonies and subsonic groans. The real synthesizers come in on the next track, "Mani," as Parsons orchestrates his many field recordings of Tibetan monks in India with his own electronic arrangements.  With a darker take on Tibetan music than most, Parsons'sMaitreyais not a New Age ministration, but uses chants as a launch point into even deeper meditations. Indian sarangis sail through stereo space in yearning laments; synthesizers rumble as if the abyss is about to open beneath your feet; and Tibetan chants, gongs, and bells moan and shudder, like giant rusted door hinges being cracked open. Sometimes discordant, rarely simply serene, David Parson'sMaitreyaisn't just a soundscape for another world, it's the vehicle you ride into that world.--John Diliberto