To celebrate two decades of creating ambient and downtempo electronica under the name
Banco de Gaia,
Toby Marks put together this enjoyable if slightly uneven two-disc set, a retrospective of sorts that takes a fresh look at his past rather than simply gathering and recapitulating it. On the first disc, he reinterprets both his own work (longtime fans will get a particular kick out of his Euro-trance reconstruction of "Soufie") and that of others --
Hawkwind's "Spirit of the Age" is given a long, luxurious interpretation that incorporates elements of house, funk, and ska, while
King Crimson's "Starless" gets an even longer -- and frankly rather plodding -- arrangement of its own. His most ambitious experiment on the first disc is a rendition of
Pink Floyd's "Echoes" that lasts fully 22 minutes -- an impressive feat, and one that does a fine job of blending
Marks's own personal electronic vision seamlessly with
Floyd's unique sound. But it's about twice as long as it has any excuse to be. On the second disc, he gathers together live performances going back as far as 1993, one -- the jazz and shamelessly smooth "Celestine" -- featuring a full band. Top honors on this part of the program go to "Qurna" (which starts out in a pleasantly dubwise mood and then gradually gets darker and more Middle Eastern) and "No Rain", with its densely packed textures and exotic choral samples.