Mars Lasar - Karma [2001]

Mars Lasar throws in the cosmic kitchen sink on Karma, as Gothic choirs, bleating whales, Indian percussion, and ethereal synthesizer tones converge into a mystic stew. And that's just on the first track. Lasar's music can often sound generic, but Karma is his finest album since 1996's The Music of Olympic National Park, which also exhibited a greater reliance on atmosphere and mood rather than elaborate keyboard orchestration. Pulling from the world-music sample-disc library, Lasar follows the Peter Gabriel Passion model, lacing together didgeridoo, shakuhachi, all kinds of ethnic percussion, and chants with synthesized ambiance. Karma keeps
flowing like a collage of ancient images in endless dissolve. One moment, you're in a Middle Eastern mosque, then you're on a southwestern butte as guitarist Kelly Hansen lays down a laconic, Ry Cooder-like slide guitar on "Tara."