PAUL VNUK JR
Silence Speaks In Shadows
Hypnos Records

The notes read: The open windows and industrial sounds of a rain, drenched city can have a strange calming effect. This is true. Since I was a child I loved listening to nature: the sound of the park, or the beach, or the night crickets I always heard at the grandmas house, even though they scared me. Water always soothed me; whether rain or river. Add washes of synthesizer to the sound of a rainy night, and you have what Hypnos, perhaps the master label in this genre, describes as psycho-environmental-music.

I am less than sympathetic to most ambient music, but do find environmental soundscapes rich, and this well-crafted disc is one of the better ones, as these rain sounds, and wind, even if the wind is computer generated (and Im not certain of this), do create a particular sound environment. I might not have thought about it if the line note hadnt stated so, but this clearly is not country rain, or a storm-at-sea. This is city; the sound of rain on concrete. Then how come things are so still?

Actually, its not still. The rain, for the seventy-four minute span, not only evolves, but changes. There is lightning, and thunder, sporadically. In this sense it is real. The synth is not oppressive, nor are the tones
chosen for it; the music literally washes over you. I can see many people using this for love-making, as well as other out-of-body experiences. As for the title, there is no silence, but much moving shadow. Toward the end of
the sojourn, the music, perhaps unwittingly, takes an emotional turn. The synth recalls some of the organ works of Olivier Messiaen, and things become quieter, and still. Quite beautiful.


Steven H. Koenig


Track Listing: 1. Silence Speaks In Shadows

Personnel: Paul Vnuk Jr (Ma Ja Le), looped synth improvisations, manipulations; Christopher Short, edits and arrangements