Sadhana
Maneesh de Moor is another of those music mystics who tarts up his work with Eastern imagery and metaphysical debris, right down to the hybrid Dutch-Indian name. But when you brush away the verbiage, you're left with an ambient album that is far more sophisticated than the cosmic clutter would lead you to believe.  Eastern sounds abound onSadhana, although not in the obvious ways you might expect from the Sanskrit title, which means "moving toward enlightenment."  De Moor mixes live performances, studio electronics, and ambient sounds in subtle ways. Recordings of Australian frogs create his rhythms on "Raindance," where bird sounds are used to build tension more than ambience. On "Silent Ganges," chants and mantras are electronically filtered and arranged in choruses, resulting in a languid trance-pop piece. There's nothing here that hasn't been rendered on theBuddha Barcollections, but De Moor avoids the electro-loop grooves and goes a bit deeper with tracks like "Jewel in the Lotus," on which he creates a 10-minute swirl of guttural Tibetan chants, didgeridoo, surging synth patterns, and ominous frame drums for a drone symphony. Maneesh de Moor's roots aren't in the world of chill, but rather early ambient. That's evident throughout the disc, but especially on the final track, a Harold Budd-like ambient piano meditation that drifts dreamily off the edge.--John Diliberto