Atharva- Ivy Day in the Committee Room

Artist: Atharva
CD Title: Ivy Day in the Committee Room
Label: Torched Records
Reviewer: Jeremy Eckhart
Date: 11/02/04

Distorted vibrations swallowing the surrounding silence in metallic textures carved from a dischordant lullaby. Broken boundaries casting off celestial lights that burn brightly and then fade into the background. Ivy Day in the Committe Room overall is a soft, yet assertive ambient journey into the unknown.

Atharva's approach is very minimal, and perhaps it is the manner in which the sound itself is arranged and produced, but there is a quality in it that encompasses you. Due to the patterned sequential nature of most minimal songs, they are often said to have a hypnotic, mantra like quality. With a name taken from The Atharva Vedas, this artist does his best to remain true to himself and this statement.

Listen to Ivy Day in the Committee Room a few times, and eventually the craft and the emotion behind it become clear, and affecting. You'll hear hooks where at first you heard only noise. It's by no means a perfect album, and according to Joshua Schuler, it is only the first chapter of an ongoing story. So total coherence and perfection obviously do not seem to be the goal of Atharva. Instead it is like he is trying to make music that has a textural depth and a dirty beauty unlike anything you've heard before, and he is succeeding.

By far an album of timbres over tunes, there are times when Atharva's music harkens to the austere and experimental synthesizer sounds of early Blue Nile or Tangerine Dream, such as in the tracks "Insipid" and "Adaptations". While some of the influences may jump out at you, this is an original undertaking into the world of techno minimalism, filled with interesting, emotional lyrics and a sense of inner exploration.

For more info, go to Atharva @ Myspace or Torched Records