Panabrite (Seattle keyboardist Norm Chambers) works in the hazy, analog‑synth‑laden zone between kosmische drift and new age waft. Such artists tread a fine line between sublimity and schmaltz, but Panabrite confidently steers his armada of tones to the former state. On releases like Contemplating the Observatory and Wizard Chimes, Panabrite launches beatless symphonies of fibrillating, smeared whorls and drones that make you feel like the star of a weird nature documentary or a sci‑fi blockbuster from 1977. Chambers excels at evoking both the intimate and the epic with his scrupulously wrought arpeggios and ostinatos. There's something of Vangelis's grandiose melodic sweep, too, in Panabrite's expansive compositions. One track from Observatory is titled «Shimmering Pinnacles,» and it's the truth.
-Dave Segal, The Strange

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