Once more, dear friends, into the breach that is ambient music with “Lunar Beachcomber” by Celestial Trails keeping me company on my existential voyage into the atmospheric and other cartographically described areas of nonverbal communication.
Duly, this album features no words to give direction or clues to the intent of the composer – one Taner Torun – and perhaps the gloriously enigmatic song titles such as “Lighthouse Behind The Glowing Tree” or “Egg Hatching in the Violet River” would suggest that all that is here is more of a head trip than mere entertainment. It is somewhat disconcerting, however, to hear the crackling of the old days overlaid on the looped, yet always drifting, melodies that pervade this album. Has this been done to pull the listener from the inattention given to what might have been perceived as background music? Perhaps. Yet the result proves to be not so much a distraction than a parallel to the swirling confluence of mellowness that accompanies it. Again, there are no words other than the song titles to give a true clue but there is, nonetheless, an undeniable sense that the invocation of contemplation is the aim.
I am never sure that I have, or indeed can, determine the intent of ambient music like this. To me, background music is the radio which is full of music that you can, quite easily, ignore yet an album like “Lunar Beachcomber “seems to be worthy of deeper exploration even if I cannot quite figure whether it is eight steps towards a destination or eight separate musings on the same subject. Maybe that was the plan all along?