Cave of the Jaguar by David Crews

When melodic elements or rhythmic elements occur, they tend to be repetitive and flowing. This keeps things smoother and lets the listener's mind enter more readily into the soundworld being presented. It also allows for a certain level of "entrainment" for those interested in meditative practices or shamanic journeying.

In fact, the loose theme of the entire album is one of an extended shamanic journey - that is, a spiritual/mental journey into another non-ordinary realm of existence where the laws of nature are often quite different from our everyday reality. From time immemorial, shamans in all native cultures have made such journeys to effect healings and learn needed information to help their people.

David Crews -- Musical Bio

David has been involved with electronic music since 1974, when he bought his first synthesizer - a MiniMoog - which he still owns. This instrument, along with another now vintage synth, the Arp 2600, have a place of honor in Jaguar Feather Studios. In fact, their unique sounds are still sampled and used in the modern computer-based instruments (anchored in Apple's Logic Pro 7) that form the heart of the Studios.

David comes from a musical family and took piano lessons early in life, followed by six years of drums and percussion in Jr. High and High School bands. The latter was the very highly regarded Permian High School "Mojo" band from Odessa, Texas (yes, THAT school of Friday Night Lights fame). During this time, David specialized in Tympani, and earned a spot in the All State Band competition, where he had the pleasure of being conducted by Frederick Fennell.

In college, David started a broadcast career in radio and television by becoming the Classical Music Director of his college radio station, hosting a daily 2 hour show. He began work at a local TV station in the production department, and has been making award-winning commercials and programs now for more than 32 years.

That career somewhat sidetracked him from pursuing electronic music due to the cost of equipment and lack of time to devote to it, but the bug was always there, behind the noise of everyday work. David never wanted music to just be a hobby, but with the old reel-to-reel and cassette decks and no practical way to arrange and compose more than a few tracks at a time, working at the hobby level was all many musicians could afford during those years. He was determined, though, to be patient and wait for the technology to advance.

He kept up with the progression of MIDI and synthesizer technology and, when the time was ripe, jumped back in to music production with full energy and attention. The advent of modern, computer-based total production made the difference, with most of the expensive hardware items now rolled in to a comprehensive software suite. The possibilities with these new tools are endless and infinitely compelling. The time for making music has come.

David has many other interests and achievements. He is a published author, award-winning television director, animator, digital and traditional artist, and webmaster. He lives and works in Austin, Texas.

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REVIEW from AMBIENT VISIONS website:

http://www.ambientvisions.com/

"David Crews’ Cave of the Jaguar is a journey for the listener through the inner realms of the spirit via the ebbs and flows of the drifting music that moves the journey forward from track to track on this release. As David states in the album notes on his website this CD represents the base storyline of his shamanic dream that he had while vision questing in the deep deserts of Utah and New Mexico.

The music at times is rhythmic and dramatic pulling you into the unfolding story and at times it allows the listener to drift in otherworldly synth washes in reflection of where they have been. The music also alternates between the light and airy feeling of floating to the dark realms of deep ambient that surrounds you but does not oppress you with so many shadows that you lose your way on the introspective journey.

David states on his website that his earliest influence in the realm of “space music” was Tangerine Dream circa Phaedra which he was exposed to while working at a radio station. When TD began to move away from their original vision this influence in his life was taken over by Steve Roach and the music that Steve has created over the past quarter of a century. The music that comprises Cave of the Jaguar indeed bears the marks of these influences and yet the style is distinctly David’s as well it should be.

I confess that in my past listening habits I have been more than a little partial to the tribal music of Steve Roach and Byron Metcalf so it comes as no surprise that two of my favorite songs on this CD are the opening track called Moving Above It and of course the song called Ritual. Moving Above It with its repetitive rhythm always present in the background creates the perfect canvas for the sythns to weave the storyline that begins the journey inward and away from ordinary consciousness. While this track is not as airy and drifting as later pieces it is a perfect piece to begin this kind of introspective journey with and certainly one that bears repeated listenings. At seven minutes it allows time for the listener to enter into the spirit of the journey and prepare themselves for the more open and spacey pieces that follow.

Ritual which is further along in the CD again adds a beat but more along the lines of the beat you might find during shamanic rituals and features a rattle and other less electronic sounding instruments to offer the listener a sonic landscape more consistent with sitting around a fire in the desert a meditating on the dancing flames while moving inward. The synths are there as always providing the atmosphere to the rattle and the beat and always pointing the listener to deeper inner realms.

Cave of the Jaguar is a fine effort by David Crews to put into music the feelings that he experienced during his shamanic dream questing in the deserts of Utah and New Mexico. This CD falls between drifting space and tribal oriented music with equal dashes of both during the 52 minute journey that this CD takes you on. There was a certain cinematic feel to a couple of the songs most notably A Place Within which reminded me of the music from the movie The Abyss when Ed Harris had reached the aliens below and was moved by the communications he had been having with his wife while falling into the abyss on his one way journey. Light and positive and very much a song that takes you to a place inside. All in all this is a CD that would make a great addition to your ambient library of music and one that I would recommend."

Reviewed by Michael Foster for Ambient Visions

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