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Deborah Martin & Jill Haley — Rendering Time
(Spotted Peccary SPM-9068, 2025, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-09-29

Rendering Time Cover art

The first fifteen seconds or so of the opening title cut let the listener know they are in for something special, a mesmerizing choral sound unlike any other I’ve heard — it seems to have been processed and texturized, while shimmering with beauty, later joined by electronics and melodic orchestral woodwinds. Amid further vocal embellishments, percussion (gongs and hand drums), and synthesizers, the piece embraces a powerful sound palette that drifts and flows throughout, splashing gentle colors and warmth, steadily morphing and stirring, up to its six-minute conclusion. In fact those are the panoramic elements and sonic tapestries that fill the ten tracks that comprise this wonderful new opus by Deborah Martin and Jill Haley, a follow-up to their earlier endeavors The Silence of Grace (2021) and more recently Into the Quiet (2023), their previous collaborations on the Spotted Peccary label. The pieces here are jointly composed and arranged, with elements of orchestral, electronic, and tribal intertwining. Haley is known for her series of works interpreting the beauty of various national parks and monuments, several of which we have covered in these pages; here she plays English horn, oboe, black cedar flute, Yamaha Motif (synthesizer), Taos drum, and vocalizations. Longtime Spotted Peccary artist Deborah Martin plays Yamaha Motif, Roland V-Synth, Spectrasonics Omnisphere, handpan drum, Taos drum, rainstick, acoustic guitar, vocalizations, and more. There are many standout tracks herein — in fact all ten have something unique on offer: “Soaring” wanders through mostly orchestral terrain with some guitar and electronic embellishments, a beautiful melody dominating throughout; “From Source” begins with lush woodwind orchestrations until the shimmering vocalizations, electronics and tribal drum sounds take it to an altogether different place; from its dreamy opening, “Cenote (Place of Deep Water)” brims with scintillating beauty, while “Fitful Dreams” explores the more electronic side with sequences and loops; “Secrets of the Talking Trees” explores a magical forest of stark beauty, while the gentle and dreamy closer “Sunlight and Starlight” wanders the universe with guitar and oboe in tow. An astonishing work that deserves to be heard.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Deborah Martin, Jill Haley

More info
http://ambientelectronic.bandcamp.com/album/rendering-time

 

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