Numina: The Chroma Plateau
Spotted Peccary

The high quality level of Spotted Peccary's electronic ambient catalogue is upheld by Denver-based synthesist Jesse Sola on his latest Numina collection. With twenty releases to his name and two decades of soundcrafting under his belt, to call Sola an experienced hand is an extreme understatement—even if The Chroma Plateau is the debut Numina solo release on the label. That it is seems almost inexplicable, given how naturally the artist's ambient-spacemusic style dovetails with Spotted Peccary's. (For the record, a collaboration involving Numina and Zero Ohms, Broken Stars Through Brilliant Clouds, did appear on the label in 2015.)

Working with hardware synthesizers, effects, and a custom modular Eurorack synth system, Sola has crafted a seventy-one-minute set guaranteed to satisfy deep ambient aficionados. Though he prefers not to dictate the interpretative response the listener derives from his music, track titles such as “Intergalactic Traveller,” “Bringer of the Beings,” and “Living in the Clouds” certainly suggest particular directions. The range of possible meanings gleaned from the nine productions is broad, but one imagines most listeners would characterize the recording's expansive soundscapes as epic transmissions whose reach spans galaxies.

It takes no time at all for the deep plunge to occur, with the shimmering evocation “Beaming up the Fossils” spanning eons in its quietly epic unfurl of synthesizer washes and ethereal atmospheres. One of the best things about the recording is that while the nine productions establish an impression of cohesiveness, each one is subtly different from the others. In contrast to the brooding mysteriousness and ominous stillness of “Where all the Creatures are Dreaming,” for example, the sunnier “Intergalactic Traveller” feels almost jaunty. That's not the only time dramatic contrasts emerge, with other pieces ranging between claustrophobic dark ambient (“Mosaic of Whispers”), tribal ambient-dub (“Sky Descender”), and monumental, prog-inflected uplift (“When the Sea Disappears from Me”). The album's most engaging production arrives when the album-closing title track serves up a thoroughly transporting nine minutes of Tangerine Dream-styled whooshes, starbursts, and plaintive melodic phrases.

March 2018