Craig Padilla

The Spotted Peccary label has been consistently putting out great ambient, space and synth music albums. Their latest release, Below The Mountain, by Craig Padilla, is no exception.

We’ve reviewed a couple of other albums by Padilla, The Light In The Shadow & Genesis. While his last two releases had more of an ambient or space music feel, Below The Mountain shows Padilla’s classic synth music side.

Fans of the Berlin School electronic music of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and of the classic seventies synth music of Michael Stearns and Steve Roach will find plenty to enjoy here.

The tracks on Below the Mountain explore various combinations of drones and modular-style sequences. Some, like Current and Wandering Though, have more of a West coast space music feel. Other tracks, like Woven Planet and Endless Road, have a more Berlin School feel. Read more…

Craig Padilla’s The Light In The Shadow, a recent release on Spotted Peccary, is a gorgeous ambient CD that features one long-form track, the title piece.

The Light In The Shadow has the floating, blissful quality of classic ambient/new age work of early Steve Roach, Michael Stearns or Kevin Braheny. The music bathes you in beautiful sounds, from washes of string-like sounds to long, tones that drift from one speaker to another.

While The Light In The Shadow is primarily a drone-based piece, it evolves significantly through its 1:03 length. At times, Padilla thins the music down to a perfume-like ambience, and at other times he builds densely layered sound collages. The piece also gradually build from a free-flowing beginning to a more rhythmic peak. Padilla adds layers of interlocking sequences that add a sense of motion, without making the music driving.

Padilla’s CD has a seductive sound, but also a depth, so that it rewards various levels of listening.
Spotted Peccary is becoming one of the premier labels for ambient and space music and Craig Padilla’s The Light In the Shadow is another great release.

Tracks:

• The Light In The Shadow