Baying Ridges’ Echoes Through The Canyon is a complex sonic web, woven from many auditory strands. It is sophisticated, sometimes challenging music that deftly combines a profusion of different tones, timbres and textures. Baying Ridges makes ambient music with the ability to engage a listener and hold their attention, allowing for deep exploration.  Baying Ridges utilizes his intensely rich sonic palette in intriguing ways on Echoes Through The Canyon. He creates unexpected mixtures of sound that can form intense contrasts or flow into a nuanced and complex whole that gently varies as it unfolds. In spite of being ambient music, there’s so much depth in the soundscape that my ears are always engaged. 

Echoes Though The Canyon is also a chance for Baying Ridges to demonstrate his skill in generating mood and atmosphere through sound. The complex way in which each track unfolds allows the music to roam from brilliant light to tenebrous shadow, exuding emotions that range from deep pain to tranquil peace. As a whole, the album is a journey with many facets and emotional moments that draw me in.  I also enjoy the way in which Baying Ridges makes his more experimental side accessible to listeners. I find that, while segments of the album challenge me, I never feel alienated by it. There’s a quality within his music that is strongly appealing, so when things get a bit far out I still find something that keeps me listening. 

Track By Track Analysis 
“Cortez The Killer” commences as heavily seething, dense sound rumbles while distant, softer sounds blunt the harshness while they continually flow. Rough, static-laden hissing is supported by sonic tendrils trailing while airy sound drifts. Hollow, feather-light sounds trickle past and rounder notes intertwine with ease above blue water bass depths.  A breathing feeling permeates higher notes as static crackles and chiming notes hover while underlying weight buoys them up. All of the sonic elements become a intricate whole that effectively engages the listener. This rework of the Neil Young original lends it complexity and power. Galactic, vast sounds float through with ease.  Metallic, bell-like sound ripples, given definition by the rough crackling background. Massive bass rises like deep ocean currents, shifting with muscled ease as airflow openly slips past and a reverent sense of mystery tinges the track. Rising sound contrasts with scraping static as elevated ringing shifts above it. Crunchy noises mix into the continually entangling, harshly hissing background while overwhelming bass creates forceful sensations. A steadily shifting, high metallic sound rings out with the chaos around it. 

Peaceful, deeply settling sounds glide out with rounded, luscious tones and smooth depths below them to open “Towards The Sun.” Bass weaves in to skilfully create a shadowy weight to leaven the lightly touching soundscape. Distant, melancholy notes have a spectral sliding quality as they move with airy motion. Tautly flashing sound echoes while twisting notes interlock above the growing low end, filling all the auditory space. Medium-high sound creates a pleasing calm while droning low notes support the other sonic elements. Fluting high notes drift above a tidal sonic wash like aquamarine currents, touched by pained emotion. Haunted notes ripple, lost and seeking direction above underlying shadow.  Bright, ethereal notes chime in, sparkling with fragility. The low end drone is tinged with organ-like notes that crescendo and fade out. 

“The Eternal Siren” starts as enfolding sound glides out, trembling as it flows. Deeply slipping bass moves below choral sounding notes forming a reverential melodic line.  Dense bass rises up in clouds and night insects chirp in the distance. The choral sound has a melancholy quality above its bass underpinning.  Higher, breathier sounds slide past and rise up above the depths underneath. Soothing qualities fill this music along with a wandering feeling. Slowly exhaling notes also flow through the music.  A forlorn quality is carried in the voice-like sound along with something enchanting as open-sounding notes shift above thick bass.  A round-sounding instrument adds darker shadings to trailing vocal sounds, echoing out with a lost quality. This well-crafted track exudes mournful emotion, gentleness and a hint of something stranger lurking in the background. The track slowly winds down as the spectral vocal sound carries it to a conclusion. 

A metallic clashing mingles with scraping, circular sounds repeating to open “Break Free.” Wobbling, bending bass combines with the other elements to create a lush flow. There’s a sweeping, swirling feeling in the track that I find hypnotic. Bending bass and tapping, echoing metallic noises float out into the void before silence falls. 

“I Saw You Once In a Dream and You Were Lost” begins as tremulous, tender sound moves over a glowing background as full, far away notes move far away.  Wind-like sound floats as fragile chiming sounds also move. Below a shadowy bass well supports string-like, tentative notes while metallic sounds trail through gently.   The track’s lower sounds form a nervous  soundscape moving through cavernous openness. Skittering noises trip through as resonant, vibrating sounds float above bass weight. Shivering sounds brush past while twinkling notes tinge the music. Baying Ridges effectively creates a pervasive, detached feeling in the music. Surging power begins to grow with more than a hint of portent. Strength contrasts with the delicate soundscape flowing while elevated notes flicker. Slowly shifting, shining high sounds trickle while haunted, yet reverent emotion radiates from the mistily intertwining background. A low drone adds to feelings of vague warning while higher sounds glide past and out into silence. 

High-pitched chattering squirms through above echoing lower notes with a worried quality to bring “Sea Creatures” to life. Teeming, squealing sounds raise uncomfortable sensations and a strange whisper permeates the music. Sounds skip and tumble in the distance, blaring out with rough edges as a squelching sensation fills the elevated sounds. The background cries out with frightening feeling while a caressing noise drifts to leaven the track's unsettling sound. I am suitably discomfited by the track’s crawling sensation. In the distance, massive weight is lacerated harshly while whispering and the higher notes’ gelid squirm deepens the discomfort level. The sea creatures in the title seem to be wriggling together in a mass through the threatening, bizarre soundscape to generate a distinctly off-kilter auditory environment. 

Conclusion
Echoes Through The Canyon is ambient music with nuance, layered complexity and evocative power. It explores a plethora of moods, images and sensations through the sheer variety and depth of sound that Baying Ridges utilizes. The end result is fascinating and alluring as it draws me through strangeness and beauty.