Perhaps the only way to make sense of
Emeralds
' sprawling output of glistening ambient recordings is as a series of improv sessions, which -- despite the frequent lack of discernible instrumentation -- is frequently exactly what they are.
Solar Bridge
was the first
release to receive any kind of distribution above the CD-R/cassette level, even making it onto LP. Consisting of two side-long pieces --
"Magic"
and
"The Quaking Mess"
-- the music is deep and meditative, flowing textures that somehow scan as simultaneously organic and synthetic. Despite its futuristic overtones -- in the sense that pure electronic music is, for now, perpetually futurist --
Mark McGuire
,
John Elliot
, and
Steve Hauschildt
have created a truly timeless sound that could have sprung from the underground at any point since the early '70s. A few minutes into the disc's latter half,
"The Quaking Mess,"
McGuire
's guitar becomes audible (somewhat), his loops building in asymmetrical cycles, not unlike
Robert Fripp
's, and
' cogs are momentarily revealed. Just as quickly, though, the sounds wash over them, and
is back in the cosmic slipstream. ~ Jesse Jarnow