Collections of Colonies of Bees
By Brian Barney
The latest from Collections of Colonies of Bees is comprised of musical murmurings that crescendo to eclectic swellings with acoustic guitars and analog keys. Each song seems to fade into the next with a fluid motion that mimics a boat drifting down a stream, occasionally bumping flotsam represented by sharply picked harmonics and blips of carefully manipulated notes from the keyboard. Chris Rosenau handles acoustic and lap steel guitars along with keyboards while Jon Mueller adds percussion and miscellaneous noises.
This journey toward serenity in track after track of image shaping music sounds like Ravi Shankar spending an afternoon with Pink Floyd, where the occasional pop of a snare drum or rattle of a sundry percussive device shakes the listener out of a pleasant state of rapture. While probably best-suited for ambience, the occasional thud, or electronic swell of pitch causes a deviation from the flow, leaving the listener peering around the corner in anticipation of what might happen next. "fa.ce (a" will be a welcome addition to any new age collection.
