'Vision of Eden' is electronic music producer Bart Hawkins' second release on the Spotted Peccary label. This time Bart's album concept is based on the book of Genesis (the bible, not the band) with creation, paradise, and man's downfall in the Garden of Eden as the focus. Comprised of five tracks in about 54 minutes, Hawkins takes the listener on a very active ambient trip that is more focused and less experimental/abstract than his prior album, '21 Pulse Eclipse' which I reviewed back in 2019. I should mention that the album was done nearly entirely on modular synthesizers (no keyboards) and also guitar.

Eschewing the primordial ooze of Earth's beginning in favor of a more lush utopia, "Garden of Grace" begins reminiscently similar to the intro of Yes's "Close to the Edge" before the band kicks in. Stretching well beyond the horizon, the piece expresses vastness and variety in its encompassing vista. "Orbital Eccentricity" sounds more like the creation process than watching the planet rotate through space. There is a lot of activity, some subtle, some not so subtle, engaged in processes that shape and form things. "Sidewinder" alludes to the 'Serpent in the Garden of Eden' and begins with noise drones and one-handed guitar trills. It lends an ominous, serpentine aura before the dulled percussion kicks in. Thereafter, a sort of rattling and a variety of ambient guitar techniques employed by Hawkins throw seductive shade over the verdant terrain. Hawkins draws on his Berlin School roots for the underlying power sequencer that moves the piece through its second half.

You just know that everything's not coming up roses in "Descent Into The Forbidden Fruit." After a rumbling, ominous opening, the piece manifests its true form- the power and glory of creation and destruction, like and death, spiritual energy and nuclear energy, the uncontrollable force of nature that humankind has been deluded into thinking it has the power to control. Awesome and terrible in its potential, this genie will not go back willingly into its bottle. The piercing drone employed here may be more than you bargained for!
A return to nature, calmness and tranquility is the raison d'être of "Dragonfly Speaks." Although far from being minimalistic, there is a Zen mien about it that allows the listener to cool down and chill out after the heat and intensity of the previous track. It's the perfect ending to the 'Vision of Eden' us earthbound creatures can only imagine.