4.5

Release data:

Giles Reaves – Wunjo
CD, MCA, 1986

Giles Reaves has working in the music business in Nashville since 1984, mostly in the studio.

Around 1986 he was a staff engineer at a studio where country music was being mixed, working with synthesizers in a back room. This is where producer Tony Brown often heard these “strange and beautiful” sounds coming from, after Giles had been asked by his friend Rob McClain if he couldn’t play these cool instruments to make music like on Hearts of Space.
Tony Brown had just started the Master Series label at MCA (which up to that time was only acoustic music), and was looking for electronic music artists.

On thing led to the other: Giles Reaves used his advance money for music gear, and wrote the first song on the cd called “Wunjo” (“Joy”), followed by “Uruz”.
The other music on the album was recorded earlier on various home tapes, which Giles had given away to friends. So after Reaves got signed to the label, he called his friends, got the tapes back, learned the songs, and recorded them once more using a Mac 512 and a music sequencer program. Both were the very new technology at that time, so Giles had to do his best to understand it all. He recorded only MIDI tracks (no traditional audio recording) for all the songs.

For the mix of all music, Reaves carried all his equipment into the studio (having worked at home thus far) and recorded directly to digital without using a multi-track tape recorder.

The five tracks (all named after traditional Viking Runes) on “Wunjo” have an intense dreamy, minimal and overall mellow impact. The 19-minute “Sowelu” e.g. is a gorgeous flyby over a crystal ocean of slow flowing soundscapes where time and place don’t seem to exist as the listener enters another dimension.
This immersive experience is even topped by the closing “Odin” of the same length.

All in all, the instant classic “Wunjo” is an absolute must-have for spacemusic fans.

Website: www.facebook.com/giles.reaves

You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Giles Reaves artist page