Through the Timeless
After an opening glissando of evanescent synthesizers that make you think Captain Kirk is about to intone, "Space, the final frontier," J. Arif Verner does indeed travel the spaceways in his follow-up toA Vision Beyond Light. He traverses a drone zone that's more crystalline than dark, with melodies that wash up like random ripples on the sand of a wave-lapped seashore. Only the title track, with its tribal percussion, rises up to the level of groove. Verner brings some interesting touches to his slipstream: a shofar's horn announces "The Calling" and acoustic guitars are set in bas-relief on "Within the Portals." Zither playerLaraajiappears on two vaporous tracks that are based around his echo-delayed ostinatos (a short, repeated phrase). Triggering many of his electronic sounds with a guitar synthesizer, Verner has a natural arc to his melodies. There are many New Age synthesists working with the same materials as J. Arif Verner, but in his hands, it sounds less clichéd. He doesn't extend the form, but he brings a craftsman's hand to it that's often lacking elsewhere.--John Diliberto