Liquid Mind

Liquid Mind, the brainchild of Los Angeles composer Chuck Wild, a former partner of Patrick O'Hearn in the rock band Missing Persons and who wrote a few television soundtracks as well.

Ambience Minimus (Chuck Wild, 1994) is a sophisticated work of ambient music. Zero Degrees Zero is a slowly revolving impressionistic painting that intersects Klaus Schulze's galactic soundscapes and Harold Budd's ethereal filigrees. The 28-minute symphonic poem relies on memorable melodies, although they are barely: slowed down like in a time warp, they decompose in celestial chimes, echoes of angels, breathing of nebulae.
The album includes three 12-minute pieces as well. Whisperchill is even softer, the melodies even more heavenly, the pace even slower. That supreme stasis of that track and of the following Liquid Mind flows into the majestic slumber of Shadows Of White, a fairy tale sculpted in snow. Again, melodies overflow, but the heartbeat has been stopped, and one hardly realizes how much this music owes to romantic symphonies and Morricone soundtracks.

Slow World (Chuck Wild, 1996) contains three suites. Mirror Veil (16:54) is a concerto of floating whispers in the cosmic void, the zenith of his celestial, neo-classical music. Blue Seven (12:40) is a similar concept but delivered over darker drones, with melodies that become more and more poignant as they repeat. The colossal Slow World (29:04) is instead a more traditional cosmic travelogue in the vein of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, basically a symphonic work, although with a lot less melodrama. After that worthy follow-up, Wild seemed to abandon the project, perhaps having reached a sort of saturation point.

But then Liquid Mind returned with albums that resumed the journey from where it had been interrupted. Balance (Chuck Wild, 1999) contains a mesmerizing slow-motion descent into a magical landscape: Laguna Indigo (18:27). The symphonic Timeless and Tender (11:50) is a revolving carousel of stereotypical leitmotifs, like a remix of Tchaikovsky melodies. Dream Messenger (13:45) is perhaps a bit too somnolent.

Unity (Chuck Wild, 2000) is another demonstration of crystalline droning ambient music. What we hear in Unity is a variation on the neoclassical adagio. It is as if an entire repertory of "adagios" was being played in slow motion and out of sync by an orchestra of orchestras. From The Silence is inhabited by the ghosts of melancholy lullabies. The stately Gold In The Shadows is the musical equivalent of sunrise reflections in a pond. The new tour de force of Society of Dreams (15:26) is waves and waves of soothing melodies: strings and woodwinds float, multiply, merge. An ocean of tenderness overflows into Wrap Me In Your Love.

Later albums include: Serenity (2001), Spirit (2003), Reflection (2004), Sleep (2006), Lullaby (2009), Dream (2011), Meditation (2012), Relaxing Rain and Ocean Mixes (2014), Deep Sleep (2016), Peace (2018), Mindfulness (2020), Simplicity (2022), In the Love (2025).