"As a producer and mixer, Scott Solter has worked with Superchunk,  Okkervil River, the Mountain Goats, Pattern Is Movement, and the Court  and Spark. <em>One River</em> is a re-release of an ambient album he made in 2005.

Ambient music is by nature intangible, meant to evoke sensations and  feelings rather than the structure and explicitness of most music. I  started listening to <em>One River</em> after visiting the Rothko Chapel  in Houston, and I immediately saw the connection between Rothko’s  monochromatic paintings  and Solter’s washes of sound. Neither is meant  to be appreciated in the same way as traditional art. There is no  subject matter in Rothko’s paintings  just as there is no  verse-bridge-chorus structure in Solter’s piece. Instead, both artists  are concerned with creating emotions in more subtle ways than does  traditional art. What ambient music and abstract art offer is an  opportunity to experience art that isn’t trying to define the  listener/viewer experience. You aren’t distracted by the form, and so  can better experience the sensation that the art evokes in you.

<em>One River</em> is meant to be listened to as one piece, and it  slowly ebbs and flows over its 33-minute running time. There are  processed guitars, synthesizers, and subtle percussive elements. It  pulses and runs like the river it is named after, and the end result  feels natural and organic despite the digital tools used to produce it.   The overall mood is peaceful and reflective. It never veers into new  age cheesiness, and doesn’t contain any unsettling or dissonant moments.  I love Aphex Twin’s <em>Selected Ambient Works Volume 2</em>, but there are several tracks on that collection that are truly unsettling; and I was happy that <em>One River</em> avoids getting creepy.

Mark and Laura Solter created a film called <em>Twins and Wives</em> to accompany the re-release. While it is an interesting visualization of the music, I prefer to listen to <em>One River</em> without the visuals. Part of my enjoyment of the album is what images  and feelings it brings up. It taps into an area of the brain that most  music doesn’t touch.

I really enjoy this album, and I’m thankful that Perth-based Hidden  Shoal Recording chose to reissue it. It’s gotten me to explore more  ambient music, and has been a wonderful contrast to the majority of  music that I listen to.<em> One River</em> is an excellent album that fans of ambient music won’t want to miss."

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