Rudy Adrian: Reflections on a Moonlit Lake
Spotted Peccary
Any one of the eleven atmospheric soundscapes on Rudy Adrian's latest collection of tone paintings testifies to his powers of visualization, but it would be hard to better the closing “Summer Night Rain” as an illustration. After persistent rain dribble and the rumble of distant thunder set the scene, a flute-like tone warbles like a loon's lonely call and dense washes suggest winds blanketing the setting. Other creature sounds emerge as the drifting material lulls the listener into a state of torpor. Here and elsewhere, his rendering of the scene is so vivid, the material at times becomes to seem more like a literal field recording than an artificially created simulation—something Adrian, I imagine, would take as a compliment.
Reflections on a Moonlit Lake is his eighth release on Spotted Peccary and perpetuates the approach used for albums such as A Walk In The Shadow Garden and As Dusk Becomes Night. Like them, the new project draws inspiration from the natural as opposed to industrial world; that Adrian's interests centre on nature makes sense given that his initial forays into electronic music-making occurred while studying forestry at the University of Canterbury and later as a botany student at the University of Otago. While he doesn't shy away from acknowledging nature's darker side and the dangers it poses, he tends musically to represent it as a place of refuge, tranquility, and serenity, a site where one goes for spiritual replenishment. The arsenal of keyboards and electronic gear he's assembled in his New Zealand studio offers him an unlimited palette of sound textures with which to paint.
The opening “Mirror Island” instantly relocates the listener to the outdoors when it's introduced by sounds of water lapping ashore and a woodwind evoking a bird's vocalization. Adrian's track titles often spark associations and suggest interpretations, “Dawn Across the Southern Ocean” a case in point. When glistening synthesizer tones drape across a hushed, ethereal base in this spellbinding presentation, it's hard to resist drawing a parallel between Adrian and Brian Eno at his most atmospheric. As absorbing is “Papanui Lagoon” for the summery haze that envelops its soft murmur.
As peaceful as the release generally is, occasions arise where mystery intrudes and unsettles. There's an undeniable spookiness about “Midnight Angel,” what with its brooding piano and eerie clattering noises, and portent oozes from every pore of “Within the Darkness.” The ineffable wonder and majesty of the solar system is evoked during “The Belt of Orion” when nebulous washes conjure the image of awed campers gazing heavenward at day's end. Adrian calls the album's pieces “quiet accompaniment for the listener as they rest, read, meditate, or sleep.” True enough, but they do considerably more than that when they have the ability to transport the listener to the centre of a nature setting, whether it be a forest rain-soaked at night or one shimmering the morning after when bathed in dawn's early light. It's impossible to imagine any admirer of Adrian's work being less captivated by Reflections on a Moonlit Lake than its predecessors.June 2024