Early in the morning, every day, I would go for my morning walk and jog; Sunday through Thursday to keep my energy levels up and running whilst clearing my head. This morning was not a usual morning as I have my trustee iPod touch with me at all times to keep my mind flowing with wonderful sounds, visioning what would the atmosphere sound like as I walk across my neighbourhood.
When it came time to delve into Chris Russell’s Lumen, it became a mysterious, dooming, yet beautiful experience for Russell to vision the cold, rainy, heavy snow storm, and electronic power that comes with it. Released on the Spotted Peccary label, Lumen is inspired by natural light and spiritual illumination. It gives Russell a chance to bring the listener into the crystalized cave for a meditated growth for the titular light to grow.
This isn’t the first time I had tackled Russell’s album. I had reviewed his collaboration with Philip Wilkerson’s Imaginary Realities last year and gave it a good review on Echoes and Dust. Now, with Lumen, you feel as if you’re in a dream, visioning the beauty, the forest-like sounds, and nebulas spinning across our solar system.
There’s the glimmering sparkle of flash unveiling in front of our very eyes, the view of space in Russell’s own space station as we witness the wonders of it. When you listen to ‘Luminescence’, you get a sense that you’re entering this dark corridor, confronting your demons that had haunted you for years, telling them it is time to move on and never look back and let the past be the past.
It is some very heavy stuff that Chris puts onto his instruments, but he wanted to push it forward and reveal not everything is all cute and cuddly in what we have witnessed. ‘Spectral Vision’ is an opening door to view the natural light with its unique form to see this dreamworld-like quality with a reflecting, turned powerful moment from your childhood before the rain begins.
When I think of ‘Light Without Heat’, I think of Chris nod to Klaus Schulze in a way to honor the electronic maestro as he uses these drone-like quality to capture his time with the Ohr label which is featured on the Irrlicht album. I wished that Russell used an orchestra on this to create this haunting, yet eminent terror that’s about to unfold.
This is certainly not a bad album. Russell himself has given the chance to take his music beyond the Berlin School of Music, and beyond to prove to himself that he’s more than just an electronic artist, but a visionary composer, creating the world’s inside his head. And for once, we’ve got to experience the Luminating worlds inside our very minds.
