Infinite Universes By Jim Ottaway

 

Infinite Universes

By

Jim Ottaway

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

We all need a little sanctuary from the troubles and strife from this increasingly fearful world, and the meaningless negativity that can be found from a global media obsessed by pessimisms, but there is hope, and today that hope comes in the guise of music, and from one of the finest electronic artists on the planet in Jim Ottaway and his latest album Infinite Universes.

Australian born electronic synth master Jim Ottaway has been producing magical music for many years now, and is one of a very few composers who can take you away from you woes and tribulations with his outer worldly creations, the journey through these Infinite Universes starts right here, right now with the opening offering entitled Beyond Heaven and Earth, a mindful composition that treads so carefully onward and upward, away from the mundane and into the ethereal realms, and all within the confines of a truly marvellous opening foray.

What I truly enjoyed with regard to the construction of this album was the sublime touch and deftness of tonal structures within it, tracks like Ancient Starlight are but one example, here we find an aged composition, but the soft palate of the creator in Ottaway here, adds so much colour and texture to the arrangement; the repeating keyboard motif and the swirling synths partnered each other with sheer perfection.

Hidden Universes is a superb piece, one that grows as it goes, we know scientifically that we have not even scratched the surface in space travel, so we have far to go and much to learn. Here the artists explores that narrative, bring us music from worlds, galaxies and systems as of yet unknown to us, and does it with such style. The composition is slow and ponderous, at times with slight classical motifs, it is as if we are spinning in slow circles as we move forward, just trying to take in everything as we go.

We move to another delicate creation and this one is called Until Eternity Passes Away, I ruminated over this title and wondered if it was in fact an oxymoron, but the more I listened I became enamoured with the interminable energies of the music, this is quite a beautiful piece and one that reminded me in part of the work of Jean Michel Jarre, but the softness of the melody here added a layer to the creation that made the whole manifestation truly warming to listen to.

My thoughts on the soothing overall narrative of this album continue to grow now with the track Divided Skies. For me this is another wonderfully new age styled track that took me back to the nineties and my old friend Phil Thornton. New age music is making a massive comeback at the moment, so it was most pleasing to hear a piece like this on the album, a soft keyboard structure and a melody line that is both charming and reflective, one that gifts the listener a feeling of assurance.

We are now drifting in areas of deep space and as we do so we come across a track called An Infinity Of Universes, this one reminded me in content and context of the aforementioned Hidden Universe track, but perhaps this piece maybe more of a possibility rather than an a postulation, here the artist explores a potential new energy of tone and timbre, he does this with grace and class, utilising the keyboards structures in ways that Medwyn Goodall used to do back in the early part of the century, the mixture of both piano and synths here were utterly riveting.

I will give you advance warning here, please listen to this album with headphones, especially to get the most out of this amazing composition, the chimes, tones that sounded like a digeridoo, and synths swirl from left to right in an almost hypnotic manner, and Many Different Suns is a piece that shows an essence of artistic creativity like never before, throughout the whole of this album I felt like Jim was trying to push his boundaries, he succeeds beautifully on this one.

Our penultimate offering is entitled Voices Of Universal Infinity, as you may have surmised from the titled, I would mention the somewhat beautiful vocalisations contained within this track, they most certainly are stunning, but so is the soft backdrop of electronic reverberation that accompanies them. This is without doubt the most moving and emotional offering off the album, the chord structures manifest something remarkable and almost anthem like in its overall manifestation.

Light From Perfect Darkness is our final offering and it truly is a parting gift of sublime quality, sometimes all we need is a chink of light to give us hope, and Ottaway births that right here on this piece, this is a wonderful last offering from the artist and one that resonates from musicians like Tomita, to Serrie, to Kendle and beyond, a blissful climax indeed to an incredibly stylish and creative album.

Infinite Universes by Jim Ottaway is a sanctuary of sound, it’s a place you want to go when life becomes a struggle, here is an album that will literally transport you into the heavens and beyond, but more importantly, I believe overall that Jim may well have created his best work thus far on this release, the softness of touch, the sensitivity of compositional structure, tender textures and the creative intelligence of each arrangement speaks utter volumes for this new release, a new album that I have no hesitation at all to recommend to each and every one of you.