Citizen of the World

Citizen of the World is multi-instrumentalist David Arkenstone's one-man world tour. Envisioning a future global community where borders, barriers, and flags have vanished, Arkenstone musically samples a cross section of world cultures--Arabic, Asian, Native American, Celtic, aboriginal, Spanish, etc.--to convey his notion of a United States of Humanity. Thematically similar to his intriguing Citizen of Time project recorded a decade earlier, Citizen of the World is a more terrestrial affair, usually sidestepping the celestial, chest-swelling grandeur of earlier works. Here the sound is often gentle and restrained, at times better suited for relaxed listening than mind-stretching. Still, it has its highlights, including a pair of slowly unfolding sonic excursions to points unknown, "Safe Passage" and "Into the Dreamtime." --Terry Wood