Named after the mesmerizing but rarely seen lunar event in Joshua Tree this is a record that aims, and largely succeeds, in transporting the listener away from the daily grind.
The ten tracks are built around improvised piano pieces Martin Craft recorded in a studio in Echo Park then turned into complete songs in a cabin on the edge of the Mojave desert.
His third album is aptly described as "a score for seclusion" and maintains a subdued and solitary character throughout.
Making such personal music so inclusive is not an easy trick to pull off but Craft does so with ease by resisting the temptation to over-layer the songs with 'atmospheric' studio effects.
There are glowing string arrangements but the stress is on hushed minimalism, proving that less can be more.
It opens with a scene setting orchestrated instrumental New Horizon and closes with the unrestrained romanticism of Love Is All in which he sings "Together we'll rise, together we'll fall".
Chemical Trails has a similarly otherworldly feel to Chimacum Rain by Linda Perhacs. Craft speaks of this song and the accompanying video as "a lost, hazy ramble" and this stands as a pretty good summary of the album as a whole.
A magical musical tour that takes you wherever your waking dreams want to take you.
