Nkono Teles - Love Vibration (2023) [Hi-Res]

On A Walk in the Shadow Garden, as on previous albums throughout his career, Spotted Peccary Music artist Rudy Adrian paints sylvan scenes with sound. A percussive trilling on “Dawn Redwood” could be the hammering of a woodpecker’s beak. Glittering chimes evoke light through tangled branches on the track “Hemlock Grove.” Such is the music of nature to Adrian, where these twin passions of a life upon the Earth have been forever forged.

Inspired by the sacred environment found when alone in a garden, Adrian planted his own sonic garden for the listener, painting vibrant scenes with electronic textures and chimes as well as acoustic guitar and flute. On the title track, an arpeggiator flutters like insect wings over echoing acoustic guitar chords, as intertwined as bee and blossom. Hear the wind in the panoramic tapestries of “Clouds Over Fields,” see a morning’s silver fog drift down a hillside in the spare piano of “Rising Mist,” see moonlight dapple the waves in the eerie chimes of “Dark Waters.” The eleven compositions here invite exploration without calling attention to themselves. Adrian eschews vocals and even melodies to create an open space for the listener: a companion piece for rest, reading, and walks down winding forest trails.

With this release, Rudy Adrian speaks truth in the purest form of Ambient Music. A Walk in the Shadow Garden is testament to this form and to an electronic architect at the height of his powers inviting the listener into his place of peace.