Elements Series: Earth
Earthis another in pianist Peter Kater's introspective four-disc series of ambient chamber works,The Elements Series, also incorporatingWater,Fire, andAir. Of the four,Earthis the most organic and folkloric, with Richard Hardy playing bamboo and Native American flutes on several tracks. But the disc also employs synthesizers and the only programmed rhythms of the series with gentle shakers and hand percussion.Earthevokes a pastoral landscape with song titles based on the seasons, making it a concept album within a concept album. "Summer" is light and airy and "Autumn" is shaded in romantic colors. "Spring" is almost country, while "Winter" takes on a darker hue with synthesizer ambiences calling up a chilled landscape.  Guitarist Mike Hamilton dominates much of this album, picking out melodies on overdubbed acoustic guitar. While the other CDs in the series have a contemplative tone,Earthalmost gets heroic on tracks like "Celestine."  As a pianist and composer, Peter Kater can lapse into lounge-jazz and romantic piano idioms, and he kisses that terrain at times onEarth, but there is a new austerity heard in this series that serves him well, putting him on the right side of the sentimental/sublime divide.--John Diliberto