REVIEWS

Rena Jones
Indra's Web

Posted: Tuesday, July 21, 2009
By: Tori Biggs

If you were to play Enya's Amarantine through one speaker and Feindflug's Himschlacht through the other, you might start to get a sense of what Rena Jones is all about. Jones' latest release, Indra's Web combines classical string arrangements with electronic elements to produce a fluid storyline of genre transcendence. Though almost wholly instrumental, Jones, who is responsible for the writing, programming, and most of the performance on the album, keeps the listener striving to make sense of the carefully ordered tracks, running the gamut from the airy, almost downright bubbly sounds of "Ordinary Day" to the darker, more synthesized instrumentals of "The Webs We Weave." Indra's Web is certainly a difficult album to pigeonhole into any clear category with its eastern influence, new age roots, and electronic bursts that provide a calming, almost trancelike state. The multi-talented Jones' classical cello background and work with the New Millennium Orchestra shines throughout the first half of the album, particularly in the tracks "The Awe and the Wonder" and "Helix," whereas her electronic tendencies come to the forefront later in the album, culminating in the EVAC remix of "Helix." While it seems as though it takes a highly edified individual to really understand it, Indra's Web flows with a seamless intricacy that seems to recite a story, even if those of us unenlightened aren't able to find the moral.