There's something in the Canadian water - that's gotta be it. How else to explain three distinctly different yet excellent albums from Quebec-based keyboardist Dino Pacifici? Well, of course, he's talented, versatile, and skilled in multiple electronic music techniques. Ummmm, maybe it's not the water after all! Anyway, Hallowed Ground is Dino's foray into various ambient and space music territories and the album is, in a word, stunning! Sounding like a cross between Steve Roach, A Produce, Brian Eno, Richard Bone (pre-Electropica), and Kudzu, yet always retaining the unique textures that are his alone, Dino has fashioned a work of power, subtle beauty, primal energy, and dark shadings of sound. Using what sounds like a veritable arsenal of keyboards, Hallowed Ground succeeds in all respects. It's drifting liquid ambient on "Solace" (the longest cut and the album opener). Here the music slowly undulates in luxurious rising and falling chords, evoking something between the serenity of Liquid Mind and the deep space of Meg Bowles and the aforementioned Roach. Next is the Eno-esque/A Produce-like "Timeshift." A single note reverberates into the distance, while vaguely disquieting synths dance and cavort in the foreground. Subtle rhythms occasionally seep into the picture and the song begins to pulse with alien life. Later, we have the ethno-tribal title cut, filled with a primal lifeforce as exotic hand percussion mixes with swirling smoky synths, creating a primeval vision of sacred soundscapes, a la Kudzu. The polyrhythms are recorded just right and, at times, when some high-end keyboards enter the song, I even thought of the soundtrack to Riven. The last three cuts include the initially dark electronic/quasi-experimental piece, "Warp," which evolves into a wildly percolating highly rhythmic futuristic dance number, the twinkling synth-fueled outer space journey to "The Ice Fields of Neptune," enhanced by atmospheric synth choruses for a shading of mystery and grandeur, and the album closer, the fun and quirky "Cave Dweller" with more tribal hand percussion, this time counterpointed with low end synth flutes and a unique quasi-kalimba synth refrain. While I have noted the similarity of Dino's music to more than a few artists above, I want to stress that this is for two reasons. One is simply for the sake of describing the music for the reader. Two is because everyone I have mentioned is an artist I hold in the highest regard. That Dino was able to create a work as diverse as Hallowed Ground featuring influences from the artists mentioned, fashioning it in such a way that it is his unique musical vision, and do it all with such style and proficiency (the album sounds incredible) is a testament to his skill and his art. Having graced us with The Journey, Acquiescent Resonance, and now Hallowed Ground, all I can say is, "Dino, what are you going to possibly come up with next?" Well, whatever it's gonna be, it'll have a ways to go to reach the height of Hallowed Ground. Obviously, this CD is highly recommended! Bill Binkelman/Wind&Wire-2000