Old Million Eye 
On his third LP as Old Million Eye Brian Lucas (Dire Wolves, 43 Odes) conjures up a crystalline air that sits between psych-folk’s spiritual center and ambient’s warm embrace. The album is ethereal, setting the skitter of drums against discordant strums, the soft purr of sax, steel guitar and bowed strings. The album comes close to some of the spectral haze that surrounds Lucas’ work with the Wolves, and sure enough Brian’s DW bandmate Sheila Bosco lends some ambience to the works here. She’s not the only familiar name to crop up, though. Lucas rounds up a whole host of psychedelic travelers, including Steven R. Smith (Hala Strana, Ulaan Khol), Jem Fanvu (Vacant Gardens), Bill Evans (Kids on a Crime Spree), Zekarias Thompson, and Ceylan Hay.
The ensemble executes Lucas’ vision with a gossamer glow, weaving shimmering passages that get heady without getting heavy. Percussive touches burble and bubble beneath the swell of synths and the light lap of noise. Brian’s vocals get lost between the creases of the tapestry that the band unfolds, while Thompson’s sax creates memorable marks any time it arises out of the mists. As the album wears on it starts to form a chrysalis around the listener — opalescent, iridescent, and all enveloping. Like the alchemy inherent in its natural counterpart, its not all calm inside the cocoon, but it certainly is beautiful.