Reflect Like A Mirror, Respond Like An Echo by A Produce

This special edition was remastered with the assistance of Robert Rich, and includes 3 bonus tracks: the previously-unreleased tracks "The Marble Staircase" and "Sunstream", plus the extended version of "A Smooth Surface" (24 min), issued in 1994 as a limited edition CD.

The deluxe special edition of "Reflect Like a Mirror" offered here includes a multi-page color booklet of A Produce photos from his travels across Southern California and the Southwest, to sacred places and moments.

As French writer Claude Chemin once wrote about A Produce's music:

"A Produce finds his place among artists who believe their role is to act as the intermediaries between the inner spaces that motivate human beings and the outer spaces, natural or invented which deserve to be described artistically. He offers to the listener contemplation and reflection and tries to act as the interface dealing with the contradictions of the world in which we live, a world where the observation of the exterior has a tendency to give way to the image that people are trying to give us of it and where the inner space certainly has great difficulty asserting itself in the hustle and bustle of daily life. For that reason, his music is neither revolutionary nor excessively experimental and yet it does include innovative components. It is neither aseptic, but it has a seductive side that is difficult to resist. In short, one could say that it this this the kind of music that brings progress because it wins you over without depriving you of your consciousness and capacity to reflect."

OTHER REVIEWS:

"Overall, this creation is haunting, almost unsettling, probing hidden mysteries of the soul. Many cuts are very long, and very hypnotic, with an organic shimmering sound like random molecular movement. Its otherworldly ambiance brings to mind the devic kingdom. Great for deep journeying."

Heartsong Review

***

"Each piece is polished and deep, an evocative marvel inspiring an alert state, sometimes a let's-go-bye-bye state in others.... This heartfelt and intelligent creation is a worthy successor to Harold Budd/Brian Eno's Plateaux of Mirror."

NAPRA Journal

***

"Absolutely entracing and mood-seducing, this is active ambient music, and, although electronically derived and motivated, results in an abundancy of lush, warm sounds that invite, beckon and entice. Keyboardist Ruben Garcia assists on the title track and the achingly beautiful "Clear Pools," where the dark hues of A Produce's electronics mesh seamlessly with Garcia's striking digital chords. Captivating."

i/e

***

"This fascinating CD combines the best of Eno, Budd, Hassell, Roach, Rich, and Borden. The result is a meditative trance journey the like of which I haven't heard since Michael Stearns' Planetary Unfolding.... an utterly subline tour of outer and inner space..... This CD covers a lot of ground and will cross many listening genre boundaries, as is evidenced by its reviews in all the other alternative music publications."

Synthesis

***

"Eno/Hassell fourth-world ambiance and Harold Budd styled keyboard atmospherics..... The most distinctive tracks are the last three, all of which have a strong invented ethnic flavor..... Other tracks are nicely (and even beautifully) done, but have a more generic meditative quality which hovers somewhere between background and foreground."

Option

***

"Well away from the melodic-based Eno ambient explorations, this is much moodier and strange music where often the sounds are unidentifable and the mood elusive. A kind of uneasy ambient music, I suppose, that reveals itself more with each listen."

Audion (England)

Average Customer Review: