First, the comparisons. Solter’s work reminds me of Vidna Obmana ("River of Appearance") and some of Harold Budd’s more ethereal work. If you like these artists, you will probably like this album. This album seems to lack some of the structure of Obmana or Budd but this is not a bad thing. Instead, Solter strips the sound down to textures and drones, creating peaceful soundscapes with processed guitars and other sound sources (I could swear that in one track I heard one of those plastic tubes that you whip around to make a whistling kind of noise... .) This seems to be a significant departure from Solter’s previous album on Manifold Records, "The Brief Light," which Manifold describes as "a complex tribal/percussive-ambient trek into the heart of bright rainforest worlds and afro-alien rhythms, an endless list of primitive instruments and ephemeral human voices" (I haven’t heard this disc but the sample on their site corroborates well with this description). One River seems to perform the drone/ambient formula well. The songs intertwine and blend together and work well as a whole. Nothing too startling in the mix – this is nice ambience that provides an ideal background for reading or other activities. According to the promo material that came with the disc, the disc takes inspiration from the movement of water and "combines to form a continuous flowing piece, with titles that suggest a journey both through physical space, and through memory." This is a pretty accurate description. The music is the aural equivalent of watching a river. The water moves and shifts, but it is difficult to perceive any real change. The only real problem with this album is that it is a bit short. Weighing in at just over 35 minutes, the album is not quite long enough to sink into. Other than that, this is well worth checking out.