2.5

Release data:

Sanjiva – Initiation
CD, NinetySix Sounds, 1997

Sanjiva is a groovy trance-like ambient project by Berliner-based musician Vartan M. Quack, who tries to implement the lessons of the Zen philosophy into his music.

“Initiation” contains five tracks, in which not too prominent slower and faster rhythm and sequencer structures are blended with ambient soundscapes.

The outcome, occasionally quite repetitive, is rather derivative and peculiar (with slight influences of Tangerine Dream and the general sound of the Berliner School) coming completely to rest on the final 11-minute piece “Re-Awakening the Buddha Instinct”, a drifting, textural piece of quietude.
Personally, I find this immersive track the best piece of the album.