8 tracks. Running time 72:42 Another debut album this year is Justin Vanderberg's first full length work In Waking Moments. Its theme is the spaces between sleeping, dreaming, and waking; knowing this it comes as no surprise that the style is contemplative, being constructed from drones and washes. Steve Roach who knows a lot about producing atmospheric soundworlds helps out with additional keyboards on one track and also with mastering and “sonic enhancements”. The first thing that struck me is the graceful, almost sedate, way the drones and washes flow and waft across the liquid space soundscape. This alone instils a sense of calm allowing the listener to sink into the music to the exclusion of everything else. An obvious comparison would be the relaxation albums of Liquid Mind. Subdued bell like tones and ethereal drones start off the album in “Negative Space”. Slowly rising in intensity these sounds and other textures subtly undulate like the surface of a peaceful ocean. What I especially like is how some tones glow like distant starlight. Close your eyes and as the album progresses it's as if you're being effortlessly carried from one inner landscape to another. Overall the sonics don't appear to vary significantly, but as with many other ambient albums it's the attention to detail which provides the pay off as much as the sound's shape and contours. In places the minimalist style is reminiscent of Exuviae's Echoes in the Emptiness where a small palette of sounds and forms weave around each other. Imagine a journey through a tunnel with variegated lights and colours positioned at intervals and shorn into patterns by movement. In this vein one of my favourite pieces is “Tracing the Inner Circle”. Shimmering yet hard edged tones tunnel down the soundscape, reverberating and weaving around each other. Sonically, atmospherically, and meditatively In Waking Moments is excellent. Indeed, it's a fulfilling journey into dreams and the magical mental landscapes between wakefulness and deep sleep.