David Arkenstone's
Citizen of Time aims to tell the story of a voyager visiting the past and present of Earthly civilization. It incorporates plenty of ethnic toning into the composer's normal new age keyboard wizardry, suggesting the unification and definitions between the planet's various cultures. "Great Wall" features pan-Asian wind and string instruments; "Voices of the Anasazi" opens with the haunting call of a Native American flute. But while their use is inspired, the synthesized processing of these sounds sanitizes and homogenizes them. They aren't allowed to accent
Arkenstone's signature sound as much as fit into it, and this tends to make the album resonate less than it might have. This might not matter to longtime fans of the artist, who will likely be satisfied with the album's consistently strong contemporary instrumental arrangements. But from the standpoint of its concept,
Citizen of Time is a bit faltering. ~ Johnny Loftus