Atlantis Rising

Most of Steven Halpern's recent works have been location-specific ambient music, but on this collaboration with Michael Diamond, the emphasis is on the more progressive rock-oriented side of the new age realm. Not that Atlantis Rising actually rocks or anything — Diamond, like Halpern, doesn't have any interest in the aggression that even the most genial rock & roll requires — but several of these ten fairly lengthy pieces recall the likes of Tangerine Dream. This is particularly true over the album's middle third, where synthesizers grow to dominate the arrangements almost entirely, leaving room only for Diamond's e-bowed guitar on the centerpiece track, "Molecules of Emotion." At the beginning and end of the album, guitars and percussion take an equally important role in the soundscapes, rooting Atlantis Rising in a fairly mainstream, albeit thoroughly unfashionable, section of the rock marketplace. Anyone who's ever liked any of Steve Hackett's or Rick Wakeman's solo records will probably find something of interest here.