“We often forget that our planet is smaller than a grain of sand on a beach. Life is a gift, and our time on this planet is limited. We should strive to make this experience easy and pleasant for each other.”
Taner Torun
Monday is Earth Day, an annual event celebrated in the name of environmental protection. But many of us, cynics and earnest lovers alike, know better, noting either aloud or quietly too ourselves that every day is Earth Day.
A new offering to our mother of a speck of sand floating through the vast emptiness of space, Lunar Beachcomber is the debut album by Celestial Trails, an SF-based solo ambient project by Taner Torun. Lush as sweeping ocean views yet gritty as sand between the toes, the album weaves a highly concentrated matrix of sounds and techniques to achieve its sonic sublimity: Close listeners will be able to discern everything from live instruments like piano and guitars to synthesizers to generously applied reverb, delay, and tape manipulated effects. Like existence in this paradise of the present, it is at once overwhelming and yet calming.
For those looking for more in this vein: Torun runs Fluttery Records, an SF label which has released post-rock, ambient, and modern classical by dozens of artists since its founding in 2008.
