Boy and the Tree, the

Ommmmm. Nature-themed ambient music that’s maybe a combination of Oren Ambarchi’s guitar drones, Jon Hassell’s organically shifting melodies, Chris Watson’s nature field recordings, and an ice-cold drink of water from a Japanese mountain brook. Mind-bogglingly evocative both of being in a particularly peaceful Japanese garden and of taking in a concert on some especially potent hallucinogenics. I’m going to break down crying at how beautiful this is. One comparison is to the Japanese psychedelic band Toho Sara (but I know that’s a real obscurity – sorry).

1. Wobbly bent-string notes and gentle but abstract wooden block percussion
2. Rhythmically looped and echoing percussion with slowly developing theme
3. Similar to track 2 but with the sppoky echoes replaced by ethereal “aaah”s
4. Simple reverbed guitar and tamboura drone builds with electronics, violin, voice, and tabla into a full-on … well, not exactly Indian song but a nice simulation
5. Slow intro gives way to rapid gamelan bells and then to gentle vocals
6. More fast gamelan bells plus a slow rhythm
7. Sampled berimbau (one-stringed Brazilian instrument) and voice
8. A bit tinkly but very placid groove
9. Casbah drone – repetitious, ominous, attractive
10. Thin-sounding keyboard scales
11. Birdsong-like (and cawing) strings, muted drumming, and a nice female chorus – just as if you were walking through the jungle; gorgeous
12. Wavering “melody” and wordless vocals