#neo-classical

Following a similar path to 2023’s Chronology, the new compendium presents all facets of Allen’s artistic development in dialogue with itself and its influences. We hear revamps of material from previous projects, Chronotope and beyond, along with what seems to be previously unreleased excursions. The remixes tend toward a winning combination of unity and clarity, adding both nuance and power to the originals. “Medicine Wheel,” a track from 2013, hits harder from the outset in this remix but with more textural disparity, especially in the ascending and descending arpeggiations propelling it forward. They emerge that much more brightly amidst the silky serenade of layered light and susurration against which the arpeggiated rhythms counterpoint. To experience all of this completely, it should be heard following “Ariadne’s Thread,” the album opener and a more but by no means exclusively acoustic track from Allen’s time in the group Confluence. What becomes remarkably clear in the juxtaposition is the composer’s love of rhythmic texture as it morphs into, or is subsumed by, motivic invention. Hearing the pieces programmed this way erodes internal and external borders as Allen’s long-fostered vision is elucidated.

It would be folly, and wrong-headed, to attempt a description of each narrative in relationship to the others. Experiencing Kaleidoscope is a personal journey, one of intersecting moments and ever-increasing cinematic scope. Sonic tropes pervade each immersion, some readily identifiable, like the drums and Tambura-drone on “Dance of the Raven Man,” and others tantalizingly elusive, as when a hint of wind or water wafts across the soundstage in “Geosynchronous.” It has been reduced in this remix while the vocal elements are elevated, the whole now a study in rhythmic subtlety and Protean timbral shading.

It is difficult to imagine a more achingly beautiful disc conclusion than the radically reworked “Clear Bell Ringing in Empty Sky.” Motion and stasis exist in prayer-like symbiosis, the melodies unfolding in orchestral harmonies implied as often as clearly stated. Nature-adjacent sounds provide a pulse simultaneously enhanced and checked by the convergence of scale, ghostly slide and, of course, tintinnabulation, until all recedes for the chorale finale. Its unfolding bespeaks the nested narratives, from moment to moment and in macrocosm, shaping the music and its constituent soundworlds. Each gesture tells a story of wisdom, obviously born of long meditation, commensurate with the album’s accompanying poem, a perfect encapsulation of the album and of Allen’s compositions; sounds mirror a process obviously fundamental to his experience: “Lives appear and disappear/Their themes weave counterpoint/Into the fabric of the world.”