Craig Padilla Heaven Condensed

Currently celebrating his fourteenth year as a prolific solo artist and collaborator on the Spotted Peccary label, Craig Padilla offers up his latest outstanding solo work, Heaven Condensed, where he presents to us a world beyond time and space. Structured like a four-paneled work of sacred art, Heaven Condensed forges a philosophically spiritual vision of another dimension, abstracting the existence of Heaven as one might experience it either internally or externally, in four diaphanous movements that convey a wide range of organic, tangible, physical energy to amorphous, floating inspiration. Kaleidoscopic in its sequences of melody that meander through complex harmonies and atmospherics reminiscent of classic Berlin School masterpieces by Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, Heaven Condensed draws from the time-tested studio practice where analog keyboards and modular synthesizers were traditionally recorded in real-time. Padilla decidedly steers his vast array of electronic instruments in an excitingly fresh exploration of the celestial currents that hover and careen past dark abyssal depths. One doesn't need to be familiar with Padilla's previous works in order to find this album accessible. The metaphorical relationships he presents through the sensuous medium of electronic textures and sound spaces will feel familiar to the soul. A capacity for delight and the sublime is the only passport one needs to embark on this sonic-space journey, which is brilliantly realized and emotionally satisfying.