Elemental Essence: A Neurosonic Journey By Ellen Johnson

 

Elemental Essence: A Neurosonic Journey

By

Ellen Johnson

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

I always love it when I come across a new name to me in the genre, and this new album has all the hallmarks of a really good long EP or short album from Ellen Johnson, with a powerful array of compositional structures and a rhythmic pastiche of tone that literally thrills the listener and entrances its audience, the release itself is called Elemental Essence: A Neurosonic Journey and it most certainly is.

The opening offering is a good old traditional ‘90s style new age arrangement, one that balances its desires on a globally fused rhythm and new age sounds. and called Roots Beneath the Horizon, combing various animal noises this is one of the most creative pieces I have heard from this genre this year, and reminds me greatly of UK based new age artist Phil Thornton in style, and indeed in performance.

Amphitrite’s Longing is up next, this is right in my court as a mythologist. Amphitrite is the ancient Greek goddess and feminine personification of the sea. The name translates to "the surrounding sea" She represents the sea's bounty, untamed beauty, and power, serving as the mighty queen of the oceans; she initially fled the advances of Poseidon, hiding in the far reaches of the ocean. Poseidon sent a dolphin named Delphinus to woo her, and she eventually agreed to marry him, earning her title as the Queen of the Sea. This is absolutely on the button; the vocalisations are perfect, as is the floating and graceful instrumentation around it, and as one who lives in the middle of all this in Cyprus. it gives me great pleasure to listen to it.

The more rhythmic energies of Sirius Spirit are up next. The name Sirius derives from the Greek Σείριος (Seirios), interpreted as "glowing" or "scorching," emphasizing its radiant and heat-inducing qualities, and Ellen has done it again, manifesting a glowing track of tonal vibration, one that has many delicious layers and vocalisations, electronic wizardry, keyboard textures, and rhythmic percussive elements that make this piece one of the most fascinating and well-constructed from the release.

The penultimate offering is called Where the Wind Dreams, without doubt the most haunting of reveries, a charming floating narrative that seems to drift on errant passing clouds in a dream like narrative. The drifting vocalisations remind me from time to time of Llewellyn’s album Journey to The Faeries, but the overall feel of the piece is a beautifully lush meditative track that simply creates a safe space for the listener to bathe within.

The concluding tale is an even more interesting talking point and called Threads Between the Stars. This is a far more pronounced electronic based track with some very nice touches in the weave of the piece, there is once again an undeniable rhythm to this track that is palpable, the chimes and bowl strikes are cleverly laid into the arrangement, giving a more hypnotic overall narrative to the composition in a very clever ending indeed.

Elemental Essence: A Neurosonic Journey by Ellen Johnson is a really good collection of new age instrumental compositions, the mixture of instrumentation, rhythm and compositional intelligence was beautifully orchestrated. The album itself maybe just 5 tracks in duration, but the journey itself is more than worth the time invested in it, I would recommend this release in a heartbeat, and as such I predict a heathy voyage in the charts for Elemental Essence: A Neurosonic Journey by Ellen Johnson.