Longtime friends and collaborators
Devendra Banhart and
Noah Georgeson bonded early on over similar experiences in early childhood with parents who dabbled with new age subcultures. This meant early exposure to concepts like health food and alternative spirituality, but also to the meditative sounds of '80s new age artists. The two musicians had long discussed their shared love of this particular sect of ambient music, and toyed with the idea of making an album that would sound at home on
Windham Hill's mid-'80s roster. When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March of 2020,
Banhart and
Georgeson used their time in quarantine to finally realize this dream, collaborating remotely on the sounds that became
Refuge. The 12 pieces that make up the album are almost entirely instrumental, and for the most part follow the design of the '80s new age material that inspired the project. "Book of Bringhi" and "Rise from Your Wave" are built around slow-moving piano melodies and free-floating, reverb-bathed synthesizer pads. At times special guests contribute additional textures and timbres to the mix. The patient "In a Cistern" begins with a progression of plucked harp notes from
Mary Lattimore (an excellent ambient composer in her own right), and soon
Nicole Lawrence's twangy pedal steel joins in. "Into Clouds" is heavier and more synthetic, with an understated digital kick drum guiding layers of chiming synths and moody guitar leads. "For Em" begins again with minimal piano, but grows to include moving string and woodwind arrangements. Gorgeous album closer "Aran in Repose" also features a complex orchestral arrangement, evoking the same naive beauty of early
Disney soundtracks. There's even a chanted mantra and field recordings of Buddhist ceremonies woven into the end of the stormy "Asura Cave," amplifying
Refuge's spiritual undertones. Though meditative ambient sounds are outside of both
Banhart's and
Georgeson's usual wheelhouses, they bring something special to this instrumental conversation that goes above and beyond the average record of droning soundscapes.
Refuge sounds composed, thoughtful, and intimate, with reflections on pain, grief, acceptance, and relief coming through in the character of the album's varied atmospheres. ~ Fred Thomas
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