Sound Meccano / Jura Laiva - Salty Wind And Inner Fire

A Closer Listen

Salty Wind And Inner Fire navigates through and vividly explores its new surroundings. Beginning with the kindling of a young fire, the ambient music gracing this collaboration between sound designer and field recordist Sound Meccano and ambient guitarist Jura Laiva is an animated story of both outer exploration and inner discovery, bursting with previously unknown depths of color and light. The emergence of the light brings with it an inner warmth – an inner fire – which not only radiates outwards, warming and illuminating other beings like a campfire in its prime, but warming the inner self, too.

This fire can be dampened by the arrival of a monsoon, but if the spirit is strong, it can never be extinguished. Rainy season will always come around, and while you can’t stop the deluge, you can learn from it, and adapt to it. This inner fire protects the heart in times of deep trouble, shielding it from uncaring winds which inevitably come our way. The opening warm drone soon grows up (far too quickly), imbued with an electronic playfulness that spills over into the laughter of children. The drone is lighthearted and overflowing with good health; it’s having fun. This is the boundless iridescence of childhood, made up of glowing lights and ultra-bright harmonies, of summer evenings spent under amber skies and vanilla-scooped clouds.

These blessings can’t prevent an approaching storm – a pleasant day can quickly secede, yielding to gathering thunder – and while the music replenishes like rainfall, things are always in a state of change, and you can’t prevent that from happening. The music understands this, and that’s why it enjoys a great deal of flexibility, flowing as freely as a river come what may. Its optimism is infectious, spreading into the light notes and clinking sounds, while seagulls and wind chimes hint at something tropical, warm and languid, and despite the rising tide an encouraging beam of juicy sunshine passes through the clouds. The voices will and do mature, growing beyond adolescence and into adulthood, but the laughter and the smiles are blessed constants.

Salty Wind And Inner Fire is a consistent album, both in terms of quality and in its organic, natural world of ambient sound design. It mirrors the good things in life: the laughter of children, the sunshine lighting upon the face, a slow walk in the evening, kissing as the rain falls. The rain falls into the music, its placid sound surely a divine, supreme work of ambient. As the music navigates tricky waters, everything feels not only connected but properly united. Life flashes by in an instant, and before you know it, years have gone by. Many illuminations and sequences are found here, constantly flowing and radiating positive glances. They never become embers – instead, all of them shine. (James Catchpole)

Available here