Tracing Back The Radiance vinyl

Performed by an ensemble sporting an intriguing array of instruments (harp, bass clarinet, flute, violin, pedal steel, piano, synthesizer and vibraphone included), Jefre Cantu Ledesma's latest album is a wonderfully drowsy and evocative affair full of drifting ambient motifs, slowly shifting melodic movements and gentle, blink-and-you-miss-them solos. The scene is set magnificently by 21-minute opener "Palace of Time", where effects laden instrumental passages meander across the soundspace to the accompaniment of sporadic percussion and a lone, operatic voice. The aptly titled "Joy", with its haunting clarinet refrain and woozy vibraphone melodies, comes and goes all too quickly before "Tracing Back The Radiance" offers a triumphantly blissful conclusion to a brilliant and beguiling album.