It has been an enervating but rewarding journey. I speak of the quest to discover The Fountains of Paradise, not merely from a sonic scope, but to discover from what font it sprang, and when. It was a long train to Lhasa and many, many steps to the forbidden tculbet, but my scars, scabs and sweat were rewarded when the sacred monitor stood before me and gave speak to what I had sought.

I had been listening, oh yes. I had been listening as I went, the gentle drumming accompanying the slice of my machete, the distant voices a haunting reminder of my quest. I wondered, in those countless hours, "upon what road have these 'Loop Gurus' gone?" Surely nothing like their previous releases, Loop Bites Dog or Moksha, The Fountains of Paradise confounded me with its caresses, its patient rhythms, and its decidedly ambient flavor. Had the core formation of Loop Guru gone utterly ambient? It was this question that first spurred me on to my quest and drove my every step through innumerable countries and untold mosquito bites.

But still I pressed on. The irrationality of it fed my own irrationality. Just two years ago they had crafted a fine piece of electronic world beat called Loop Bites Dog, and now I hear sounds almost too ambient to be included on an ad compilation! How could this be? Have Muud and Sam gone ambient? Will their next record be released on Wyndham Hill? Such a possibility chilled me to the bone, but the answers would be mine soon enough.

I remember it well-- the long hallway hewn from rock, mossy stones covered with the shiny backs of beetles, then the niche, covered over with thick vines festooned with scarlet flowers. The old man had told me this was the place, so I swept the vines aside to reveal the sacred monitor. The 3D-Pipes screensaver was running, so I tapped the spacebar. My eyes lit up as the answers were revealed.

The monitor told me: "The Fountains of Paradise is a continuous dream adventure that previously appeared in another life as Catalogue of Desires, Volume 1, a limited- edition cassette- only release that predates Loop Guru's signing with Nation Records. It had been re-edited and remodeled for the millennium using state- of- the- art bliss enhancers. The contents are of high nutritional value, free from artificial preservatives, and guaranteed fad- free."

"A-ha!" I thought. "This explains everything-- The Fountains of Paradise is an evolutional deviation, recreated today from the gems of long ago. The monitor had even given me enough information to deduce the approximate date of the true birth of this recording-- sometime between 1990 and 1994. (Further research will be necessary to narrow this down, but I am not presently equipped to do carbon dating in the field.)

In that single moment, it had all come together-- the ambient sound, the muted rhythms, the slow, seductive change from Loop Guru's traditional, beat- heavy releases, it was all part of the evolution of the band! I could feel my mind reeling at the knowledge-- it was more than one music reviewer should bear. At just that moment, the most soothing, multi- textured sound came out of my 'phones, filled with chants and native instruments, and I not only heard the Om, I knew the Om.

-James P. Wisdom