Aukai

Aukai is German multi-instrumentalist and composer Markus Sieber; his stage moniker is a Hawaiian word meaning ‘traveller.’ His ambient-hippy instrumental music is intended to conjure inner stillness and beauty. It often does so, unfolding slowly from a plain opening theme on Sieber's guitar or strummed ronroco, a curiously shaped South American mandolin. This instrument, with its distinctive treble pitch, is something of a calling card across the album, blending with strings, piano and subtle electronic effects to create a rolling, familiar texture.

Sieber's music is deliberately conceived for pairing with other art forms and some tracks are particularly filmic in their evocativeness: the yearning melodic ronroco figure at the heart of ‘Alto Paraíso’ and atmosphere of uncertainty in the finely woven cello melody in ‘Agua Azul’. But there isn’t enough inspiration here to sustain repeated listening to Aukai: Sieber's compositional footprint is small, and the occasional crescendo to a synthesized climax (as in ‘Cachoeira’ and ‘First of March’) reaffirms the overall lack of rhythmic variation.