Back in 1987, when I was 12, my mother, sister, and I moved back to the Seattle area from Southeast Alaska, where we had lived for seven years after my parents’ lengthy and repugnant divorce. In my youthful confusion, I subconsciously sought out a soundtrack to my bewilderment, pain, and eventual healing. Somehow, I attached myself to a tape my mom had bought by Ray Lynch called Deep Breakfast. It was a cosmic swirl of drones, manipulated guitar, and what sounded to me to be humpback whale conversations. The album had a supreme calming effect on me and I listened to it until I pretty much wore out the tape. While many a comment circulating the Internet multi-verse about David Baker’s Cinematic Non-Fiction pointed directly to its inherent soundtrack quality, it immediately recalled those middle school days of confusion and rediscovery for me.

I would say that, even though Baker’s style is much sparser than that of Lynch, the manipulated guitar sounds are very similar. They are awash in synthetic tones that are geometrically flat and stringy. “You Visited Me In My Sleep” recalls Dr. Dave Bowman’s cosmic journey through time and dimension -- dreamy, but awake and observant. The light and airy sound sequence of guitar overdubs reassures the traveler that they need not fear psychopathic artificial intelligence anymore. Baker exhibits an adeptness at layering in “You Visited Me…” with a simple four chord, echo-decaying circular base and builds from there with more distorted sounds and the aforementioned synth-like guitar plucking, before returning to the beginning motif (which has been there all along). On “Echoes From Kuji,” Baker also shows an affinity for a Ventures style of guitar, though in a much more relaxed manner.

Describing Baker’s style as that of a soundtrack is not far off base. However, the movie theater in my mind can only capture his music in a momentary montage of a road trip with the drop top down and the ocean just off to the side. It doesn’t speak to heavier moments of dialogue. In fact, that very absence of speech brings me to my next thought.

While riding dangerously close to tagging Cinematic Non-Fiction as strictly New Age music, it would fit perfectly into my Acupuncturist’s playlists for treatment room music. He often selects highly environmental instrumental music and Baker seems a round peg for a round hole here. Perfect to fall asleep to and contemplate thoughts wanting of words.

-Gabriel Bogart