Perhaps the pinnacle of Series 7 is reached with Departure Lounge’s Jetlag Dreams, a gorgeous album of piano melodies, melancholy space meanderings and over-the-ocean lullabies. This is music that actually earns the over-used endorsement “dreamy.”
But it’s not sleepy, which is an important distinction. The best thing about Jetlag Dreams is how malleable the album is on a whole. There is no doubt that this is cinematic music, and it will become an instant soundtrack to your life while you’re listening to it. What’s impressive is that it seems like an appropriate soundtrack, whether you’re washing your dishes, kissing your husband, divorcing your husband or, invariably, simply waiting in an airline terminal.
Waiting in an airline terminal, of course, is an entirely different circumstance than it was a month ago. In the wake of a tragic September, the track listings are bathed in an all-too-ominous light (“Runway Doubts”, “A Strange Descent”, “Too Late To Die Young”). Some may say it’s the wrong time for an album that conceptually hinges on anything even remotely connected to airplanes, let alone a self-described “transatlantic travelogue.” But, of course, the album was recorded long before September 11. And, in an unfortunate way, it almost serves as a time capsule of a much simpler time in a traveler’s life, when the worst possible thing you could imagine happening to your flight was having it delayed another hour.
The mood of the album, though, is much better captured by its artwork—a dusk trip down the runway, a transcendent shoreline sunset—than its foreboding song titles. Jetlag Dreams is nearly flawless music for reflection and relaxation, patient and confident in its sound, consistent in its tone. And its creator, Departure Lounge, is a quartet worth keeping an eye on.
For more information, to listen to selected tracks, and to order the album, please visit http://www.departureloungemusic.com or http://www.bellaunion.com
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