This album is designed to be a soundtrack for an inner movie that you, the listener, provide. It accomplishes this purpose happily. "Kudzu's" electronics, percussion, and keyboard melodies, accompanied by Peter Griggs' acoustic guitar, create dramatic and engaging sound-pictures which convey different moods, personalities, and landscapes. The scene is enhanced by environmental recordings of jungle animals and birds, though some of the other "environmental" sounds are synthesized. Synthesized natural? An odd concept. But this recording was never meant to be a documentary or an anthropological or ecological statement. It is a fantasy about life in the Amazon jungle, idealized and stylized, like a painting by the French surrealist Rousseau. Though the themes (track titles) deal with life and death, it is not meant to tell the listener anything about real tribal children in the Amazon. Its idyllic, happy, sad, and scary moments are more "generic" - the individual character is for you to add in. There is some South American or Latin feeling in the tasteful guitar parts played by Griggs, but most of the music is solidly in the land of Western pop. The melodies and rhythms here are simple and repetitive; the longer pieces, without more complex material, tend to get dull. The better pieces in the album are under five minutes long, as most of them are. Among these shorter tracks are some delightful little gems, such as the title track 4, "Children of the Amazon," track 10, "River Journey," and my favorite of the whole album, the sprightly track 6, "Village Dawn." The more dramatic ones are also fun to listen to, such as track 7, "First Hunt," with its breathless sound-picture of hunters running through the forest following the prey. So don't worry about ethnic "authenticity" or Third World problems or serious ecological concerns - that's for another time. Listening to this album is like taking an exotic, entertaining tour through a virtual rainforest, with friendly natives and colorful wild animals, where you are in no danger from tropical diseases, nasty insects, lurking beasts, poisonous serpents, or head-hunters. Reviewed by Hannah M.G. Shapero 2/25/2001

Steven Feld is a professor of Anthropology who did his field work in Papua New Guinea with the Kaluli people in the Bosavi rainforest in the mid 1970s.  He has written Sound and Sentiment, an award-winning ethnomusicological work, about Papua New Guinea and the Kaluli people's rainforest ecology.  He has also made several trips to the region since his initial field work, and released an album of music from the region in 1991, Voices of the Rainforest, for Mickey Hart's World Music series on Rykodisc in 1991, an album which revolutionized field recording with its state-of-the-art equipment as well as Feld's commitment to funnel the royalties of the album back to the Kaluli (author royalties from this album go to the same trust).   Under the influence of R. Murray Schafer's landmark book on acoustic ecology Tuning the World, and with the encouragement of various artists and naturalists after the release of Voices, early this year Feld released a second album from the rainforest, devoted solely to the forest ambience.  Three of the four tracks are indeed 'ambient soundwalks,' simulated rambles through the rainforest at different times of the day.  Keafo, the morning walk, is the most active, with cicadas providing a rhythmic chatter while cooing and hooting doves and pigeons provide a counterpoint.  In Galo, the afternoon, the cicadas are less active, but there is more variety in the different bird calls.  In Nulu, the evening, the birds are silent, but the insects' rhythmic chirping and buzzing provides a deep and peaceful drone.  The opening track centers on an extended song of a Seyak, or butcherbird, over the quiet early morning forest sounds.  The seyak is a privileged bird in the Bosavi world (well explained in the album's excellent accompanying notes), and its song is slowly taken up by the rest of the forest during the course of the piece.   These soundwalks, transparently and seamlessly edited together from several different recording sessions, are slices of ambience from a part of the world that few of us will get to visit, and even fewer will gain the indepth knowledge of the Bosavi people that Feld has acquired over the last quarter century.  They don't have te tension/release model of 'musical' pieces as such, but provide a soothing natural ambience for background listening as well as a glimpse of a different spiritual world for more attentive listeners. Reviewed by Caleb Deupree for Ambient Visions

Steve Roach released "Early Man" in 2000.  It came in very cool slate packaging.  A review of that landmark CD will appear in my book.  Hannah Shapero reviewed it for this site.  (To submit my review would be redundant.)  Steve has re-issued "Early Man" in a conventional jewel case with a second CD - "Early Man Decomposed!"  Over the last two or three years I have learned that Steve is a private, personable and very spiritual individual.  He also values artistic integrity highly.  While listening to "Early Man Decomposed," I hear all of those qualities and elements of all of Steve's musical journeys of his 22-year career. The strongest overtones are his tribal and primal ambient stylings.  Steve augments and highlights those elements with his austere minimalism and visionary space music.  The strong references to his desert ambience are overt and well placed. All of that is very cool and very worthy but the emotional and spiritual responses make this a Steve Roach CD - and a classic at that!  The drifting minimalism and the desert ambience evoke imagery of the early man and his isolation and constant discovery.  The mysteries of the birth of humanity are driven home, forcefully, by the eerie space riffs and the dark ambience. Appreciating Steve's music is easy.  This CD raises the ceiling again.  Through his venture to the roots of our existence, Steve takes us back to the perpendicular universe. Appreciating Steve's emotional and spirituality energy is a challenge!  It requires deep and focused listening! This CD is a special gift from a special man.  It is always a treat to embrace a new Steve Roach CD.  It is a true honor to review it as well! Reviewed by Jim Brenholts

Whenever i sit down to listen to and review a "healing" CD I cannot help but think, "OK, here's another standard muzak CD!"  That preconception is imbedded in my brain.  Fortunately, it is not imbedded in my heart or soul. New World Music has a set of such CD's in "The Mind, Body, Soul Series."  "Colour Healing" is a strong entry in the set.  Extensive liner notes by Lilian Verner-Bond, a world renown colour therapist, describe the clinical practice in detail.  The music, by Llewellyn, intensifies the experience exponentially. There are definite nods and winks to standard new age structures and passages.  Llewellyn goes beyond those limits with diverse and well-paced sound design and arrangement.  Various acoustic and electronic instruments make up the soundscape.  The electronic overtones give the CD a space music quality.  The orchestral and acoustic qualities keep us grounded and focused. The focus is definitely on healing through meditation and relaxation.  The orchestration is lush, full and dramatic.  It has almost a sequenced timbre.  The rhythms are even and constant allowing us to appreciate the consistency of the healing power and energy.  Is this a new age CD?  Yes, it is!  Is it standard fare?  No, it is much more!  Does the album deliver its promise?  Absolutely! Reviewed by Jim Brenholts