Leela

Sorry, no audio yet.

Artist:
Okano, Hiroki

Title:
Leela

Genre:
Ambient

Publisher No.:
(1997) Innovative Communication - IC 87 2293-2 , DA Music, Kruppestrasse 7, D-49356 Diepholz, Germany

Comments:
6 tracks, entitled "Leela" #1 thru #5, with a "Leela Ambient" track at the end (I'm still not sure if this is extended variations on one long piece; there's a lot of change, but certain themes seem to recur.) "Leela" is an Indian term meaning, literally, "holy play", or --as author Gita Mehta put it-- 'the meditation of the practical joke". ;-) Where "Heaven In The Koo" was seriously deep listening music, probably as home in a zen temple as in your cd player, "Leela" is more of an airy high, sort of a distillation of 90s chill room dj mixing fetishes into one album: beatless old-skool ambient impressionism that slowly merges with hypno-dance-beats and sequencer trance-lines, throwing in natural sounds, found sounds, environmental and ethnic recordings --hell, there's even a dolphin! ;-) Unlike Tenkoo, which is all acoustic and focusing on group improv, 'Leela" is Okano's take on electonic ambience. This is a blend of his more big-"A" Ambient interests --overtones, didgeridoo, drifting bamboo flute, natural sounds, and even a bit of his 1,000-wind-chime installation-- with a more electronic and clubby edge: insistent 909 loops, massively ring modulated acid lines, feedback delays, and some nice electronic percussion on a Korg Wavedrum by Masazane Nobuto. The closest comparison would be Heavenly Music Corp.'s "Consciousness III" in it's blend of meditative bliss with mildly driving beats--like that album, though, this is a record which has a pulse on most of its tracks, but the overall effect is far more hypnotic than dance-inducing.
Reviewer: Gio