[.ca] Continuum

From Amazon.com:
Keyboardists Jon Jenkins and Paul Lackey come from the Vangelis school of orchestral synthesis. Their music on this 1995 CD shows two musicians trying to find a voice in a genre rife with pretension. They don't succeed. Fond of overblown strings and bombastic percussion, Jenkins and Lackey are seduced by their sounds, which are impressive when you're in a studio and the speakers and headphones make you feel as if you have a cosmic orchestra blasting at your fingertips. But in the cold light of day, their orchestra is stiff-fingered; the lines they may have thought were highly nuanced instead sound as if they came from plastic injection molds. There are a few artists, Vangelis and Richard Burmer among them, who successfully craft their own orchestras, but except for the sweeping expanses of "The Vision," with its rotating sequencer pattern and crescendoing orchestration, Jenkins and Lackey are strictly off the rack. Continuum is not without skill, and Jenkins emerges with a more original voice on his solo album, Flow. --John Diliberto

Very good.:
This is not as good as Flow, but certainly stands head and shoulders above most CDs. It is relaxing and interesting and maintains intererest after repeated playings. The title is apt as the Cd comes together very well.

Cool stuff.:
I don't usually listen to music under the New Age category, but this CD was a happy exception. Jenkins and Lackey kicked some major booty on this one. I'm waiting expectantly for their next release, which I'm hoping finally includes a studio recording of Lackey's immortal "Ant Music".

A masterful technuendo worthy of its namesake.:
Continuum is a marvelous excpetion to most "electronic-based" music out today. Long gone are the hissing, head-thumping, ear-gnawing drum synthesizers. Instead, Jenkins and Lackey have woven a tapestry of luxurious undertones and wonderfully spatious, soul-tugging rhythms that literally take one to the edge of reality. To that place just beyond our conscious reach... Indeed, this album has proven to be an indispensable engine of creativity because that of its artists shines through so brilliantly. A worthy addition to any "new age" fan, or any fan of good music, for that matter.

• Tugging at the Cloud
• In an Instant
• Adrift
• Behind the Mask
• First Breath
• Dawn
• Vision
• Rain Within
• To the Other Side
• Relic's Tale
• Continuum