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Chilled Cellos and Melancholy Moods The Lord of Largo returns with another album of deep, soul-stirring ambient chamber music David Darling
Prayer for Compassion
(Wind Over The Earth Records) by John Diliberto David Darling goes low on his new CD, Prayer for Compassion. His is not the cello of virtuoso playing and high flying pizzicato runs. He can do that, but on most of his CDs, and especially Prayer, he's going for a deeper, more introspective sound. It follows suit from his previous CDs like Eight-String Religion and Cello Blue (our CD of the Month in November 2001) as he orchestrates a blissfully turned landscape, over-dubbing cello choirs, laying down reverb-drenched melodies and looping trancey rhythms. The opening "Untold Stories" sets the somnolent tone of the album with an udu-loop groove that drives into deeper layers of cello over-dubs.

Prayer for Compassion can seem dark and foreboding, an endless largo toward the abyss. But deeper listening reveals a quiet joy on the title track with the Ars Nova Choir providing a soft Enya-like pad to Darling's mix of pizzicato and arco playing. Samite lays a kalimba cycle on "Beautiful Life" with Darling's trumpet-like vocalese making this one of the few tunes that might be considered light and airy. On "War is Outdated," the cellist takes a walk on the beach where the song title's protestations are belied by the breezy melody. Those are a few among some surprisingly light and playful moments on Prayer for Compassion. Darling even drops in a quote from "Oh Susannah" on "Shoestrings."

Throughout Prayer for Compassion, co-producer Mickey Houlihan judiciously deploys subtle environmental recordings that flow into the backdrops Darling lays down like seeds swirling from a tree.

David Darling recorded his first solo album, Journal October in 1979. Thirty years later, Prayer for Compassion, like Darling himself, gets deeper and reveals more shadings and nuances with each listening.