At the moment we're just getting into the swing of Summer, so you why post a review of Lawrence English's album "For Varying Degrees of Winter"? Quick answer: it cools everything down just by playing it. Maybe it's just some odd subconscious part of me, but I swear, the room dropped a few degrees since I started playing this one...and the air conditioner's not on.

1. End Game
2. Fleck
3. Desert Road
4. Swan
5. Soft Touch
6. Unsettled Sleep

For Varying Degrees of Winter was recorded by English in Japan, Hong Kong, Europe, and his homeland Australia throughout the years of 2005 and 2006, featuring contributions from Mike Cooper, Janek Schaefer, and Aki Onda.

This is one of those extremely ambient albums whose notes can only be said to unfold. Saying the music is keyed or even played doesn't do it justice. Having its theme centered around winter, you can expect to hear fields and flurries of brightly scattered metallic sprinkles, ambient tones whose sound stretches on for miles, and any number of crackling details that come and go on a seemingly random schedule. Lawrence English's effort was focused on capturing everything about winter, from its blinding whites to its sullen grey clouds. What's coming out of my speakers is a sound that could easily soundtrack any winter spent in the vastness of an alternately rural and mountainous terrain...this is not winter in the city. It's too cold and too ominous.

Here's a recommendation: on a hot summer day (or night), take a cool shower and afterward, turn on your air conditioner (if you have one). Then lay down somewhere flat and comfortable where the light is minimal (just the faintest shades of blue if you can manage it). Just before you lay down, start playing this album (on repeat, not too loudly) and cover yourself with a thin sheet (preferably white of course). You could be wearing something light or nothing at all. Once you lie down, just close your eyes and drift. The effect should have you so blissed out you won't be able to move for at least an hour.

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