9 tracks. Running time 63:24 Another CD from a batch of recent albums by prolific musician Indra is The Challenge. This time the nine modest length tracks (all less than nine minutes) cover mixed musical ground from 80s style Tangerine Dream to deeply atmospheric ambience. For anyone familiar with Indra's work it won't hold any surprises, but that shouldn't matter because it's enjoyable. All but one of the tracks are mainly based around rhythm and melody. The opening track “Rudyan” is a little out of the ordinary and almost staccato in the way springy and thrumming notes echo away. Alongside this scraping and brushing sounds form a rhythm. Meanwhile, ghostly whistling comes and goes like a disembodied spirit trying to communicate with the tangible world. I found the shortest track “About Seven” to be the most enjoyable. Lovely washes, making one imagine the majestic realms of space, open up to a basic sequencing passage that is nevertheless quite affecting. These elements continue as a multifaceted percussion comes in to lift the mood. A licking percussion then takes over as a prelude to a passage containing distorted sounds of human activity. Everything fits together to become hypnotic, and brief exotic refrains round the piece off nicely. The one non-rhythmic piece is “Dreaming the Universe”. Ironically, given the title, the sounds have a mainly earthbound aspect. Picture sleeping uneasily outdoors in the middle of nowhere while all kinds of noises real and imagined blur the lines between reality and dreaming. Is that whistle a distant coyote, and is that maraca sound an angry rattlesnake's snail? Eerie washes and refrains plus a pulsating and slow but insistent rhythm, and much else besides, add to the atmosphere. I admire Indra for the amount of albums he's able to turn out while maintaining a good level of quality. The Challenge doesn't stand out from the rest of Indra's catalogue but may well appeal to those who enjoy traditional electronic music loosely in the Tangerine Dream vein.