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Chronotope Project — Gnosis
(Spotted Peccary no#, 2021, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2021-09-15

Gnosis Cover art

Jeffrey Ericson Allen is an Oregon-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music recording artist with a background in classical, new acoustic, and theatrical music production. Since 2012 he has released ten albums under the moniker Chronotope Project; Gnosis is his fifth release for the Spotted Peccary label. Chronotope refers to how configurations of time and space are represented in language and discourse, a concept with numerous expressions in literature, physics, and the arts. The music of Chronotope Project delves into that time-space confluence, bringing the listener on ambient journeys of deep texture with gentle pulsating rhythms and colorful melodies. Like each of his previous three endeavors I am familiar with (2015’s Dawn Treader, 2017’s Ovum, and 2018’s Lotus Rising — I seem to have missed his 2016 release, Passages), this latest album is a masterful collection of pieces reflecting the composer’s influences of classical, ambient textures, deep space drones, and film music, and also explores one of his other passions, an interest in philosophy, and specifically the philosophers of ancient Greece, where the title Gnosis comes from, and often reflected in the titles of the album’s six long tracks, varying from six minutes to nearly twelve. The opener, “Higgs Field: Cauldron of Being,” refers to the Hadron Supercollider at CERN, a vast subterranean snake that hums and hisses spitting out partticles, all reflected in Allen’s composition and electronic arrangements, growing like the cosmic fabric following the big bang. “Eidos, Realm of the Forms” chugs along mysteriously with splashes of melodic color and textures filtering the light along the path, with pulsating rhythms flowing and ebbing as the ever-expanding melodies reach deep into the endless drift. While “The Still Small Voice: The Muse Speaks” is succinct and to the point, its web of rich melodies and textures opens into a world of amazing beauty. Closing the set is the dark and gloomy “Myth of the Cave,” perhaps the most mysterious of them all, embellished with interesting percussive elements in a world of soft swirling darkness, finding a chorus of voices emerging from the veiled cavernous distance. Across the six tracks there is plenty of variety, all basked in shades of subtle beauty, some pieces more bold than others. Gnosis makes for an enriching listen that one will want to repeat often.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Chronotope Project (Jeffrey Ericson Allen)

More info
http://chronotope-project.bandcamp.com/album/gnosis

 

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