This album, despite its short length (Just a hair over 16 minutes), is a well crafted story.
Opening with Dance of the Zen Master, it evokes a subtle feeling of purity through the use of a harp and woodblock, punctuated by deep base tones, evoking the determination and discipline in a Zen Master's life. This is the setting for the opening of Kryane's story...the beginning, perhaps somewhere atop a fog-shrouded mountain.
The next series of tracks evoke a notion of a journey through the the many facets of our world. Cloud Nine could be a peaceful walk through a museum in a busy city. The master has encountered culture. But with culture comes new experiences...Salvia has an ethereal other-worldly feel, almost an intoxicated flavor to it...
The Zen master is changed by his journeys so far...we return to another dance, but this one more energized and less disciplined. The deep bas is gone, replaced by a snare drum - a lighter and faster rhythm that makes us think the master is intrigued with his new experiences. "What else is out there?" he may be thinking.
Hybrid Vigor shocks with a more secular feel...kind of a blues or jazz feel. You can almost smell the smoke in the air of the seedy bar, drinks being served on some beachfront of a distant shore, far from the master's mountaintop monastery.
Ascension is perhaps the most accomplished of all the tracks, not for its technical attributes, but for its skilled portrait of a foreshadowing epic conclusion. It evokes the slow but inevitable progression to some ultimate encounter. A series of crescendos tell us the master is approaching some ultimate decision... If c0ntact were a movie, and the movie had a montage of the master realizing how he has changed, Ascension would be the soundtrack.
In Krayne's final track, our Zen master dances his last...this time only a shadow of his pure self in his secluded monastery. This track is more electronic, faster, and uses some sound samples...the master is fighting! The tempo keeps up to the end, and the end is a simple outcry from our fallen hero.
I would like to see more from Krayne, as the music and the ideas synthesize a beautiful and emotional response, but are too short in some places. Nevertheless, c0ntact is an epic tale well told. If you enjoy cerebral, modern electronic music, don't hesitate to give it a listen.
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