Troposphere

Album Review

As the sound of rain pans over the speakers, a slowly evolving and deeply rooted ambience takes hold. This is how Brannan Lane's excellent ambient/space gem Troposphere opens up. Troposphere is quite different from its predecessor, Lost Caverns of Thera, as it's more along the lines of minimal atmospheric ambient rather than space music, a sort of hybrid of new age and ambient with a heavy contemplative vibe. Troposphere moves slowly, deviating very little from the motives set at the opening of the recording and moving through nearly 67 minutes of uninterrupted ambience. This recording doesn't really stand out that much from a lot of the other work going on in the ambient genre, but it's a personal best for Lane and yet another record that indicates that the best is yet to come. Lane's catalog is always growing, but Troposphere is a good place to start exploring the darker ambient side of his work.