Andrew Oda's Back to the Body is a lush modern classical ambient opus with a thoughtful, deeply emotional energy.  It recalls the soothing, yet pained music of Stars of the Lid or Kyle Bobby Dunn, utilizing manipulated orchestral timbres, but is perhaps more active and complex in its melodic developments than either one, and more vividly psychedelic and modern, with fascinating synthesis work to compliment the traditional instruments.

After the initial opening sample describing dream/spirit realms and the sense of being at 'home' both there and in the material world, a psychedelic tone is set, and the album unfolds in a refreshingly unbounded and colorful exploration.  The first piece centres around a stark, intimate piano, showcasing fluent melodic writing, and progressing through a number of different chord progressions and ideas within the span of a six-minute track.

Following the filmic orchestral richness of the opener, the second track "Descent Knot Bind" strikes a manic tone unknown to most melancholy indie ambient recordings, with vividly textural granular DSP and electroacoustic foley noise that evokes alien planet imagery.  These sections sound almost like Irr App (Ext) or Nurse With Wound, or the beatless moments of Richard Devine.  At fourteen minutes, this track gets very deep into a strange realm.  The production is cutting-edge, sounding convincingly futuristic.

This is followed by "Song of Absence", a brief tragic melody in the micro dynamic realm.  The sheer heartache of this track places this album closer in emotional tone to a Brahms symphony than a typical new-age ambient recording.  "Song of Ache", another short piece, surprisingly brings in synth arpeggi, coldly shimmering in a higher octave.  This and "cbttb(attunement)" have distinct echoes of Terry Riley, using organ texture and locked arpeggiation.  After this, "Tender Ebbs" brings softly finger picked nylon string guitar and a dreamy time-stretched swirl of drone, underscored by deep synthetic bass tones.  Each new track seems to add new genre tags, and brings a feeling of pleasant surprise.

It's a fairly long recording at seventy-one minutes but it kept my attention entirely with its inventive variety.  At times I'm reminded of the sheer gothic ambient scope of Swans' Soundtracks for the Blind.  To my ears, this is just the kind of heartfelt, enthusiastically ambitious recording the worlds needs.  It is an engaging, vivid listen that combines many forms of detail-oriented music.