Emeralds - Does It Look Like I'm Here

Cleveland ambient/drone trio Emeralds has moved on their third LP to a more melodic and meditative direction. The result is a warm and bright ambient-album which sonically approaches Harmonia, Brian Eno and on some of the longer cuts even Terry Riley and Tangerine Dream, as on the title track as well as 12 minute "Genetic". Emeralds' style of ambient sounds timeless, yet contemporary. Music is softly pulsating, yet does not need beats to convey movement. Sequencer rhythms co-exist and alternate with soft washes of synths. Synthesizer sound design is impeccable here and it often seems to suggest that if the rest of the so-called New Age music sounded as tasteful (or approached the slow hypnotic Riley esque trance as here) then the genre as such would not be as dismissible. Occasionally there is a bit of guitar, but whenever it plays anything that could be considered as a solo, it is melodic and unhurried. One of the finest works of ambient music this year.