It’s been too long since my album reviewing days and, while I lack sufficient time for the serious repeat listening which a good review requires, I can at least get back into the practice of calling attention to some of my favorite fellow artists in the Ambient-Atmospheric field.

Lily Pond Orchestra was the name of Douglas Lee’s synth-driven ambient project, which can best be described as orchestral, both in its sonic texture and its compositional ambition.

Douglas was part of the Relaxed Machinery community in its years on the Ning platform, and anyone who had the pleasure of chatting with him can confirm that he was one of the nicest souls you could hope to meet. A real gentleman. We lost him, far too soon, a few years ago, but he left a rich musical legacy which is to be treasured.

Douglas’ final three albums, Tabernacle, Beautiful Day, and Suite for New England could be considered the apex of his work. They are all available from the highly-respected Earth Mantra netlabel, which also has a Bandcamp page for new releases since its 2015 restart. Shout-outs to founder Darrell Burgan and to Geoff Small, who took up leadership of the label in 2015.

Douglas’ impressive discography also includes over 30 other albums and many renditions of classical compositions but, sadly, very little of this is available any longer.There are a few albums available at CD Baby, and a handful of tracks at SoundCloud and MySpace.

However, the three albums mentioned above, by themselves, constitute an impressive body of work. I consider them essential listening, and hope you will find them enjoyable, as many of us do.

Thank you, Douglas!