Craig Padilla & Marvin Allen: Toward The Horizon
Spotted Peccary Music

Toward The Horizon seems like an ambient-electronic music project that should have happened long ago. After all, guitarist Marvin Allen and electronic music maestro Craig Padilla have known each other since 1990 and always wanted to collaborate, yet for one reason or another the opportunity to do so didn't materialize until recently. Even the best friendships don't necessarily translate into synergistic music-making, however, but that isn't the case here: according to the Northern California-based Allen, within eight hours of working together the two had generated much of what would become the eighteen-minute title track. It quickly became apparent that the astral travelers possess complementary skill sets, which lends Toward The Horizon a sense of inevitability.

With analog and digital synthesizers and electric guitar as their respective tools, Padilla and Allen effect a deep plunge into atmospheric spacemusic of a particularly far-reaching kind, the impression created of a free-flowing, organically evolving voyage generated in real-time. The album's presented as a six-part journey, with indexing and titling used to distinguish one part from the next, but even in the absence of such markers, the music alone would indicate the transitions, given how markedly different in tone the tracks are. In a couple of instances, the combination of synthesizers and electric guitar can't help but evoke Tangerine Dream, specifically the times when the wail of Edgar Froese's guitar would be heard against the group's dense synth-generated backdrop.

In the becalmed opening part of “Toward the Horizon,” the meditative drift generated by reverberant electric guitar and whooshing synth textures calls to mind the introductory sequence in “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” though it isn't long before Padilla and Allen move on to their own expansive realm. Animation emerges through the addition of a sequencer pattern to the arrangement, and the sense is created of a trip gaining momentum and getting underway in earnest. Following the sequencer-driven propulsion of the opener, “Distant Waves” provides a five-minute rest-stop, this short opportunity to repose filled with chiming synth patterns and a sustained background roar of ambient guitar.

Though the expedition experiences a brief spell of turbulence during “Tidal Disruption,” the moment passes quickly and energized by aggressive sequencer patterns we find ourselves again advancing rapidly. For thirteen minutes, “Beneath the Surface” transports us into a panoramic ambient zone that's as deep as could be imagined; by comparison, the subsequent “Hidden” opts for eleven minutes of raw, e-bow-styled wail and endlessly burbling synth treatments, after which “Liquid Heaven” brings the trip to a peaceful resolution with five minutes of peaceful splendour.

April 2019