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With Into the Night (47:40) Jeannine Wagar makes a good case for the power of imagination. While inhabiting the role of orchestra conductor for many years her release of nine wonderful original works announces now a new and elevated area of her capabilities. Moving us to re-engage more generously with the world this album fills out with a captivating array of states, moods and airs. Representing different scenes and signs each piece takes a trek into a unique atmospheric ambience. Charged with light, life, movement and motion Into the Night fills the upper regions with ideas and sounds so vividly it feels as though we could just reach out and pluck some of it out of the humming sky above. Demonstrating here that she is a most intuitive storyteller and sonic stylist Wagar asserts a certain degree of tonal circumspection. As bass notes rumble hypnotically with eerie subharmonics, orchestral swells accumulate above. Top notes blaze out with a cool gleam before the blunted contrasts of moving chords blur the far horizon. Saturated with a mysterious excitement her synth structured, string saturated soundscapes conjure an ethereal beauty. Although a kind of high-concept Contemporary Instrumental, Into the Night is saved from exceeding the grasp of its listeners by the warm, consonant and utterly engaging arrangements realized by Wagar. A fine example of inward turning dreamscapes its greatest success lies in recognizing the human side of the Ambient genre. No one with an open heart will encounter this music and not feel embraced.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 5 June 2025 |
