A partial re-release of two LPs (Water Messages From Desert Sand and Urban and Tribal Portraits) of ethno-collage originally recorded back in the late 1980's. The basic modus of these pieces is to set up a rhythmic/harmonic bed, sometimes played on traditional western instruments, sometimes triggered via sampler, and then to add elements from "other" musics from different cultural traditions. One can't help but think of Brian Eno & David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, released around the same time period. The beds are much more atmospheric here though, the rhythms lighter and less overtly funky; more dream than dance. There is also a fairly thick western art music feel to much of it, a sort of formal constraint, as in "Vientiana" with its small orchestra of western winds and Reichian repetition.

A lot of this music boils down to the addition of western harmonic ideas to "simpler" non-harmonized music, sometimes resulting in an odd tension. Much of the time though it does result in intriguing work. "Nexus on the Beach" is a lovely mixture of talking drums, a pygmy girls' chant, Prophet 2000 chords and French Horn. Very Jon Hassell. "Digital Ketjak" is just that, a transformation of the Balinese vocal exercise through electronics, giving it a harder edge and weird plastic feel. "Lilongwa" conjures the ghost of Zappa with its massed saxes and oboe, and "Dialogue" pairs acoustic guitar arpeggios with a metal jaw harp and Argentinian voices. The accompanying booklet contains details of all the pieces and is an interesting read in itself.