02 February 2009
The GuardianJohn L Walters
The well-travelled, Australian multi-instrumentalist Nathan Riki Thomson plays with groups led by Adriano Adewale and Luke Carver Goss, and this debut complements Adewale's recent album Sementes. There's a similar range of beguiling timbres, but Thomson's work veers towards spacier soundscapes - like New Age, but listenable. Thomson and producer-percussionist Simon Allen make their studio a mirror of the world, with thumb pianos, Hungarian cimbalom, Masai flutes, Arabic ney and everything you can shake a stick at - or just shake. Thomson's Finnish wife, Katja, supplies ethereal vocals on Waiting for Rain and the semi-traditional Song for Otso. There are traces of many kinds of world music - from Naná Vasconcelos to Radio Tarifa - but Thomson seems keen to avoid any single category, an admirable aim that makes the project hard to pin down. Fortunately, his forthright bass-playing and engaging themes mean that songs such as Cheza and the title track reward repeated listening.