February 27, 1999
13181 SHAMAN - DAVID PARSONS
13171 NGAIO
GAMELAN - DAVID PARSONS
David Parsons is a New Zealand veteran of deep space music, but he
hasn't put out a new album since 1992. Instead, he's been traversing
Indonesia, Armenia, and the Middle East, recording and compiling definitive
collections of traditional music, among them the 17-volume "Music of
Islam" series. Now, Parsons has returned to New Zealand, cranked up
his synthesizers, and put out two recent sets, "Ngaio Gamelan" and his
latest, "Shaman." With vintage '70s-style synthesizer sequences pounding
out rhythms to the heavens, Parsons merges sounds from his travels,
including ghostly Middle Eastern violins, winds, and percussion, mutating
them through his processing and setting them in an electronic whirl
that's evocative of the Sufi dervishes Parsons has recorded. "Shaman"
is a sometimes harrowing, occasionally abrasive, but always compelling
soundtrack from the other world.
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