Richard Tyler: Eepra Nahf

In Tyler's "Ambient Music for Deep Relaxation and Meditation" series, Eephra Nahf is yet another offering. The 20:00 opening title track opens the way to visionary spaces with a style sounding incredibly similar to Don Slepian's "Sonic Perfume" from a now deleted release on the defunct Audion Label. It is as if Slepian said, "Sure Richard, here's the original tapes, tweak 'em, whatever, change this and that and you can use it." I guess it could be considered a very well done tribute to Slepian. It sounds as if it was done on the original 80s equipment. Anyway, it came about, it is well done and yes, very relaxing.

The next track, "The Trapeze Artist," 10:00, never really set me at ease. Its ringing, resonant, feedback-ready, whistling tonalities were painful if the volume was set too high. Random noise, warped, phased, flange mid-ranges and low-end drones add to the dense mosaic. Imagine a 6-foot tall tuning fork vibrating in a very small cubicle with you. Not completely calming but more psyche overload, inducing erasure of thought processes. Next track please—whew.

"Connection to Breathing," 20:00, ahh yes, this is better. Think of Halpern, Budd, Eno, Lynch, or Badarou idea, the crystal clear, light-filled, minimalistic tones of a sparsely tinkled keyboard. Plenty of reverb and sustain here. Occasional odd animal calls echo past in adjacent soundfields. A Whale? No. A Loon? Perhaps. An alien leather-winged bat-bird? I dunno. Whatever it is, it likes cruising around in your head, calling randomly. It's a nice touch to aid in avoiding listener boredom. ( I fear however that someone has surely done this same routine before on some holistic, New Agey 80s binge of releases.) Tyler repeats, loops, improvs on keys scantly and briefly. Tyler saunters in a directionless path to nowhere and not too fast either. It is one-dimensional, not challenging the listener to listen. No flash here. More of this, some more of that, then final echoes of the crypto-critter's cries, fade-out into a deep woods serenade of insecta and amphibia and that "loon" that leads all the night denizens into silence . . .

Cyberhome: http://www.richardtylermusic.com