Cristal

Cristal

Homegoing

Hand-held Recordings

J. Anthony, G. Darden and R. Donne (Labradford, Spokane, ex-Aix Em Klemm) journey through simmering electronic, wide-screen vistas to seismic, swelling and undulating soundscapes. From the shifting-sand textures of “Yoke” (replete with deeply moving, melancholic cello sifting through the ether) and “Streaming Wisdom,” to the ever-so-slightly somber tones of “Dead Bird,” Homegoing is a wondrously thought-provoking, uplifting aural adventure—a technicolor travelogue of things possibly lost, possibly not. File alongside latter-day Biosphere, Deathprod (especially both Helge Sten and Cristal’s attention to the minutest sonic detail), and the later, electronically based Zoviet France releases. Pour a glass of your finest tipple, sit back and be transported to a very special dimension. Cristal’s Homegoing has it all, and more.  “Ultra-deep ambience, a sound both subterranean and subaquatic, metallic shimmering high-end washes over everything like some sort of alien sheen, fields of glistening, cricket-like chitter adds texture to otherwise slow, shifting, smooth expanses of warm soft swirl, dreamy and ethereal.” —Aquarius Records “The shards of glassy, strychnine-laced fear are embedded in streams of such delicately processed drones that you would be forgiven for thinking it might have been a dream.” —Other Music “Cloak and dagger ambient’s the name of the game.” —Fact