In the liner notes for Travelog, Jeffrey Radcliffe defines his approach to creating music as "describing a place, or even just the feel of a place." This CD is truly a compendium of wondrous locations, wayfaring between border defining realms of IDM and ambient to nouveau classical and soundtrack. Clear chimes between plucked glass and tapped piano with lush, sweeping strings over synthetic drums and rasps create places individually unique yet collectively shared. Listening with headphones is rewarded: this is music to write to.

Whither kicks it off with tick-tock percussion building a rhythmic foundation for the entire collection. Dream Flight of Atalanta is filled with hope and homecoming and a joyous dawn, moving beautifully into the minimal repetitions of Transalpine. Roto whirls you into orbit with staccato melodies rushing and lifting your ears, dropping you into the washed terrain of Landscape, where warm ocean is somewhere close enough to slip right into and float all day. Ocean comes to wooded shore in the Evening Song, pre-feast in a sylvan setting with mead and maidens. You Are An seems to be missing a descriptive word, but the quest for definition is aimed inwards, not out. This track has been on repeat while I write this recommendation. Et Tu and Cisalpine form a labyrinthine duo of pitched percussion, warped bass and vibrato tones with the Goblin King leading the dance. Twisty Passages All Alike finds our hero with torch in hand, making passage through the underground, likely to be eaten by a grue. Lament closes the album with a funeral boat carrying a slain warrior to the falls.

Radcliffe makes his music available for download at Tinctoris, his weblog. There are many excellent additional tracks to listen to. Be sure to check out one of my favorites, Binary Clock 01, made with a Max/MSP patch counting through an hour of binary representation in exactly fifteen minutes.

If you like what you hear, buy Radcliffe's sonic journey through CD Baby. Become a patron, support the arts and a cool musician: go get one, throw a candle-lit dinner party and play it for everyone.