PETAR DUNDOV RA Review (4/5) of ‘Distant Shores’

Last year, I spent a month travelling around Croatia, stopping off at such places as the Soundwave festival, the lovely outdoor club Porat and the turquoise lakes and waterfalls of the Plitvice national park. No, I haven’t been paid off by the Croatian tourist board, I’m just using the Elysian beauty of the country to illustrate where the country’s Petar Dundov is probably coming from. This is his first release sinceEscapements in 2008, an album with track titles like “Waterfall” and “Sparkling Stars” which RA’s Sam Louis said would make “Manuel Gottsching dance.” His surroundings have undoubtedly rubbed off on his music, repeatedly producing epic, unostentatiously trancey, and above all natural works which evolve gently and unhurriedly.

But whereas “Oasis” or “Sparkling Stars” make the most of simple, repeated riffs by just noodling meditatively around them without straying too far, “Distant Shores” has more to hold on to, journeying through different realms. With a pulsating “Won’t Get Fooled Again” synth and world’s end dreaminess, along with clattering drums which seem to herald Judgment Day, the first four minutes break into a perfect, lyrical beauty of reverbed pluck.

Well, almost perfect, because the occasional detuned squiggles in the line depict loopholes in reality hiding in the gaps between the leaves. Rising pads soon join, and the drums also change markedly throughout and rise in energy, finally breaking out with tapping hi-hats and carrying the euphoria. It sits on the borderline between gorgeous and cheesy—probably falling just on the side of the former, but close enough to the latter that it probably wouldn’t hit its mark in many indoor clubs away from balmy Mediterranean countries.

Whether you find this mind-expanding depends on how open-minded the music you’ve been exposed to already is, but as far as simple beauty is concerned, I for one would pay the price of a return ticket to Croatia for just one night of this. Words: Daniel Petr, RA
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