Arkestra One opens and closes in beautiful, ambient bliss. The opener, "Into the Light", employs drenched electric pianos, synthetic strings and a number of samples, all of which combine to create a hazy center. The electric piano rises above the misty atmosphere with a simple, lightly echoed melody that serves as a will-'o-the-wisp, tempting listeners back down into the icy fog. The overall effect, though unquestionably ambient, won't test your patience; rather, "Into the Light" is like the moment when a DJ takes away a definitive beat in order to reveal a sparkling landscape, only the landscape in question is elongated and tinged with mellow jazz.

"Skydiving" closes the album in a similarly lush style. Here, "Into the Light"'s prominent piano is replaced by a few processed brass instruments and a central vocal sample that falters into and out of the mix, starting and stopping with just enough abruptness to seize attention each time it repeats.

In between these two excellent tracks, the album's flavor is more definitive. Finn Matthew Timoney, the Brit behind Arkestra One, has teamed up with Brazilian singer Nina Miranda, who gives his electronic backdrops a tinge of her homeland's exotic jazz. In "I Really Want You" and "Train to Machupichu", she sings and scats in a playfully seductive manner, while Timoney keeps the music light and unobtrusive, adding a handful of percussion and rhythm instruments to the mix to suit Miranda's Brazilian style. The heartwarming, lush music provides an apt showcase for Miranda's voice, which is almost flawless enough to be mistaken for one of the pristine synthesizers.

To a lesser effect, Timoney adds spoken-word clips to "Filling it with Sound" and "Man from the Audience". While they're far from being the album's best moments, these cuts offer a suitable break from their more ambiguous neighbors.

There are few prominent lead parts here to actually grab you, but once you've been enticed inside the album's warm, hazy, tropical glow, the experience is quite rewarding. Tinges of reverb and echo will draw you down into a dynamic, syrupy center, amazing you with glittery strings and lightly tapped beats. Timoney, original but never isolated, does a bang-up job at incorporating jazzier styles into his ambient sound, marking Arkestra One as an impressive first phase of what I hope will be a long, blissful dream.