Citizen of the World
Citizen of the Worldis multi-instrumentalist David Arkenstone's one-man world tour. Envisioning a future global community where borders, barriers, and flags have vanished, Arkenstone musically samples a cross section of world cultures--Arabic, Asian, Native American, Celtic, aboriginal, Spanish, etc.--to convey his notion of a United States of Humanity. Thematically similar to his intriguingCitizen of Timeproject recorded a decade earlier,Citizen of the Worldis a more terrestrial affair, usually sidestepping the celestial, chest-swelling grandeur of earlier works. Here the sound is often gentle and restrained, at times better suited for relaxed listening than mind-stretching. Still, it has its highlights, including a pair of slowly unfolding sonic excursions to points unknown, "Safe Passage" and "Into the Dreamtime."--Terry Wood