Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter Daniel Crommie's latest release Sargasso Manuscript, is a dreamy batch of ambient electro-acoustic soundscapes and improvisations featuring a variety of ethnic flutes, keyboards, varied percussion, and dulcimer. This is the follow-up to his 2002 release Creatures of Habit.

Fans of flute music, whether it be the meditative, ethnic instrumental flavor of Jade Warrior, or the more classical oriented solo work of Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, should have plenty to dig into here on Sargasso Manuscript. Crommie's wide assortment of ethnic & wooden folk flutes and pipes add a unique element and variety to each track, which are basically ambient keyboard washes filled with looped rhythms and cascading soundscapes in which he solos and lays down melodic passages over. I preferred the spacier pieces, like "The Pillars at Dawn", with its bubbling Floyd-ian synths and Crommie’s haunting flute, and "Chasing Apaches", highlighted by some seriously creepy synth effects. There's also the monolithic "Needle Teeth", a dark and foreboding number that is ominous and chilling, rather unlike some of the more upbeat pieces on the CD.

Otherwise, you get lots of uplifting ethnic sounds here recalling traditional Indian, African, Celtic, Near Eastern and Native American styles, all colored and created by Crommie's expressive flute playing on his various instruments. The Native American flavored songs are probably the most heart warming, and sure to touch lovers of culturally rich music steeped in traditional ethnic sounds. So torch up the fireplace, pull out a hot cup of tea and a good book, and settle in to the soothing sounds of Sargasso Manuscript.

-Pete Pardo / Sea of Tranquility / January 12, 2006

...many of these pieces were done direct to the take, that is, performed at once with no overdubs. This is one facet of a few different ways in which I work: at times I prefer to methodically apply individual strokes in the manner of a painter, other times I’ll throw the paint across the canvas in a fit of improvisational fury a lá Jackson Pollack.
So writes Crommie, a Continuum, Echo System, Group Du Jour and Saturnalia Trio alumnus , in his liner notes for Sargasso Manuscript, a colorful entry in the world-ambient sector. Crommie’s carefully crafted dozen improvisations hardly sound spun on-the-fly, all richly textured excursions built with an assortment of flutes ˜ ever heard of the Dvoynice? me neither , and a host of mono- and polysynths that include the humble Roland SH-101 and an “unknown Yamaha digital synth” The synths are tapped primarily for canvassing and backdrops, paralleling painted backgrounds with long-sustained chords and effects while Crommie’s “brushstrokes” are his melodious musings on one or more of the half-dozen flutes in his possession. Sequencing on “Urban Temple,” “Chrysalis” and “Uju” cements the connection to '80s flute & synth act Emerald Web, though that duo evoked more of a Teutonic-classical vibe in their electro-scheme. Crommie opts for beautifully alien sounds at times, worm-like tones that writhe in multiple directions like snakes, the yang to the yin of his exquisite flute work. “Needle Teeth” re-imagines the pulsating chaos of the conclusion of Kitaro’s Astral Voyage while you glimpse the specters of slain warriors still roaming their terrestrial hunting grounds in “Chasing Apaches”. What else does Mr. Crommie unveil after this continuous tapestry has serenaded you for nearly an hour? One last foray in the form of a hidden track buried in the wake of “Animal Spirits” (at 6:33), a tranquil, almost sorrowful piece mapped over drones.
Well, what do you think, you ask? Well done, I say!

My Score:****

-Elias Granillo, Sea of Tranquility Staff Writer