(2020) Tarotplane - The Feedback Sutras


Review:
Languid patterns of echo-sheathed guitar and synth ebb and flow here in extended instrumental meditations. Baltimore’s PJ Dorsey hints at eastern mysticism in both the title, the trance-like calm of his music and some faintly raga-ish curves and flourishes. The tone is much of a piece with Tarotplane’s side of last year’s split with Prana Crafter, Symbiose, which is described as “serene, laying slow-blooming tone-washes atop summer cricket hiss vibrations, setting off friction-y twitches that skitter over liquid clear guitar lines.” Dorsey is influenced by the space atmospherics of 1970s kosmiche musik as embodied by bands like Ash Ra Temple, Cluster and Tangerine Dream. He has, however, a warmer, more organic sound than these bands. His two long tracks here are less a transmission from deep space, more a missive from nature; they evoke flowing water, plants, sunshine, a flickering play of light and shadow. Side one, the title track, in particular, seems to curve and uncurl in a very organic way, its synth tones fluttering in flute-like tones against great lulling washes of sustained tones. The cut moves slowly, but it moves, great whooshing surges of air brushing by as you proceed. A subtle eastern flavor permeates “The Feedback Sutra,” though nothing so obvious that you can put your finger on it. Even the notes that are recognizable as guitar notes echo with a strange, supernatural reverberance. “Between Two Islands” which makes up side two, is layered with dense, overlapping drones. Where “Feedback Sutras” follow a skeletal half-melody, this second half seems to meditate on its notes one at a time, in and of themselves. It is all immediate sensation, less of a journey, more of an epiphany. Both sides are quite calming and beautiful, uneventful but in no way tedious. There is a stillness in them that resonates well with deep, undirected thought.





Tracklist:
01 - The Feedback Sutras [20:10]
02 - Between Two Islands [20:55]


Media Report:
Genre: ambient, psychedelic rock
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