Channelers: Isles Beyond
Inner Islands

Sean Conrad's tenth full-length Channelers release is less a collection of ambient soundscapes than, depending on your choice of words, a set of New Age-styled vignettes or instrumental songs; available in cassette (100 copies) and digital formats, Isles Beyond is also one of the most endearing Channelers collections to date, with many of these melodically enticing settings resonating long after the hour-long recording's over.

Conrad recorded its material in California between December 2016 and March 2020, its date of origin thus preceding 2017's Faces of Love. The title track is actually the first piece he recorded for Isles Beyond, the piano improv opening the floodgates for the 2017 release's material but Conrad opting to set the originator aside for future use. When he eventually did return to it, other improvisations were generated, with the results subjected to further sweetening to guide them to their final form. For Conrad, improvisation isn't directionless self-indulgence but rather a portal to one's inner world.

Among other things, Isles Beyond is one of the most instrumentally varied recordings Conrad's issued. As mentioned, the title track is acoustic piano-based but others were created using dulcimer, piano, guitars, mandolin, harmonium, low Irish whistle, penny whistle, bass guitar, Fender Rhodes, and Juno 60. It's not a one-note recording either, as strains of mysticism and pastoral folk surface too.

Who specifically is being called isn't clarified, but “Calling on the Voice of” engages nevertheless when rapid dulcimer streams and lilting piano patterns generate an entrancing four minutes. No piece is more melodically alluring than “Moving Through My Second Self,” which arranges sing-song patterns into the loveliest reverie you'll hear on this or any other day. Conrad's music isn't necessarily designed with easing babies to slumber, but sleep-deprived parents could put this track on repeat and see their babies respond to it immediately. As calming are the piano-and-synthesizers meditation “So It Be” and mantra-like “Impression of Indigo,” two good examples of the release's piano improv-centred character.

The recording's mystical side comes to the fore during “Dissolving Image,” a peaceful time-suspender featuring unison figures phrased by a woodwind and string instrument, and “Two of Sky,” which overlays a slow-burning drone of harmonium and synthesizer with gentle flute flurries. The title track caps the release with an eighteen-minute excursion into piano-fueled wonderment, with Conrad's explorative meander lightly brushed with ambient tinting and reverberant strums. Don't exit early as if you do you'll miss the tranquil slowing that sets in when the piece enters its final third.

September 2020