Napa, California-based composer Ezekiel James Hampton is out with the 5th album from his ambient music project Radagast The Brown. This new album is winter-themed and titled Lamps of Undending Light. Radagast the Brown has released five albums over the past six years with the album preceding this new release being 2022’s Another Plane Beyond Empiricism which featured themes of acquiring knowledge through methods beyond one’s typical senses. Radagast the Brown – Lamps of Unending Light has a simpler theme to it that stems from the search for warmth and familiarity while wandering dark and cold winter scapes.
The first track titled Enveloped by a Warmth Most Magnificent introduces this theme well as the ambiance Hampton creates moves like a slow winter breeze pushing snow drifts in all directions while the exotic woodwind melody featured in the track is the guiding light of warmth and direction throughout it. You’ll find throughout Radagast the Brown – Lamps of Unending Light that different musical concepts or instruments will represent the roles of cold and dark and light and warmth and in some situations the same instrument or musical concept could portray both. The album’s second track titled Once A Bright Shine Only to Recluse has the moving ambiance representing cold as well as chaos while a developing piano motif brings about the familiarity and warmth side to the composition.
When it comes to the track titled Unaware Players in the Grand Orchestra, the ambiance acts as both agents of cold and dark as well as warmth and light as the song features just the ambiance moving through chordal progressions with no melodic agents. The following track which is the album’s title track Lamps Of Unending Light, Hampton again demonstrates the versatility of instruments and musical concepts as the ambiance of the track mostly portrays the cold until the conclusion of the track where an added low-frequency pulse from the ambiance elicits the feeling of warmth and comfort. Across the album’s hour and twenty-minute duration, Radagast the Brown – Lamps of Unending Light offers up nuance that keeps each track unique as familiar building blocks are heard throughout. It makes for a great listen for those looking for a relaxing and nostalgic environment and is now available for streaming from a platform of your choosing.
