(2020) Chris Russell - Destiny


Review:
Certainly an album so titled suggests any number of interpretations, be it the artist’s preoccupation with the rightness of a particular direction or something broader having to do with the end towards which the universe is evolving. The seven track titles on Chris Russell‘s third solo album for Spotted Peccary go both ways, with some suggesting concerns at the human level and others hinting at physical phenomena at a grander scale. Perhaps Destiny is one of those cases where it’s best to let the music do the talking. On that count, it speaks loudly, of Russell’s production abilities, for starters. Having released albums since 2009, the LaSalle, Illinois-based ambient producer brings to the 55-minute release a well-developed skill-set that impresses even more for being entirely self-taught. This quintessential bedroom producer uses synthesizers (software and hardware) and assorted other instruments to generate his ambient-electronic tapestries. Using granular synthesis and synthesizers, Russell midwifed the album’s free-flowing soundscapes into being, destiny in that specific sense fulfilled. While not wholly absent, melody is downplayed, the focus instead on sweeping atmosphere and sound design. The opening “Invitation” is definitely well-titled, given the seductiveness of its slowly blossoming tones. The sound entity Russell fashions moves like a dense mist that even at times resembles a choral mass and advances and recedes in waves, the effect both oceanic and epic. Its dissonance-free character enhances its meditative effect, even if cavernous rumblings are audible in the music’s lower levels. Some degree of portent also emerges in “The Path Less Traveled” when a foreboding three-note motif drapes a cryptic shadow across its reverberating surfaces. As the album progresses into “Soul Nexus” and “Density of Light,” its identity as space ambient material comes into sharper focus. While Destiny is cohesive, its tracks do lean in slightly different directions. Whereas the metallic surfaces in “The Path Less Traveled,” for instance, lend it an industrial-ambient quality, the album’s title track suggests some degree of kinship with the mystical ethno-ambient style sometimes heard on a Steve Roach recording. Regardless of the differences in tone, the sound paintings are all artfully executed by Russell, who demonstrates sensitivity and control throughout in the shaping of the material.





Tracklist:
01 - Invitation
02 - The Path Less Traveled
03 - Destiny
04 - Life Cycles
05 - Soul Nexus
06 - Density of Light
07 - Awoken


Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Source: CD
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits