Echoes of Creation Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Echoes of Creation Blu-ray Movie Review

Breathe.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 13, 2011

Guided meditation has become a staple for a lot of modern church services, whether or not they subscribe to “New Thought” or “New Age” principles. Walk into any number of mainstream congregations, and chances are you may get a five minute exercise where the minister or lay speaker intones softly as you take a moment to just breathe and relax. Some higher tech congregations have even added visual elements, if they have projector systems, and these guided meditations are frequently accompanied by glorious images of forests, beaches, sunrises and other inspiring views. If you’ve ever wanted to have something of that sort at your home theater fingertips, Topics Entertainment has released two inviting titles that both seek to recreate a sort of personal guided meditation. Topics has continually been pushing the envelope on what I’ve termed “ambient television,” offering one interesting release after another. Last year saw the duo releases of two fascinating titles, Rise and Rebel, which blended Koyanisqaatsi type visuals with really good and varied soundtracks. The two more meditative releases, Echoes of Creation and Sacred Earth, are certainly much quieter, both visually and aurally, than either Rise or Rebel, but the fact remains that when taken together, these four releases really point the way to an exciting new trend in ambient home theater releases. These are releases that don’t just plop a camera down in front of an aquarium or fire or steam locomotive, but instead are often exquisitely filmed, well edited, and set to very appealing soundtracks. Echoes of Creation is a calming and often gorgeous travelogue through some very appealing scenery, with some extremely evocative photography accompanied by a good score by popular New Age and world music artist David Arkenstone.

One of the best things about many of these new Topics Entertainment titles is that the consumer is actually given choices of how to view and/or listen to the product. The old ambient titles were almost always “what you see (and hear) is what you get,” and they frequently were bare bones affairs that weren’t exactly models of variety to begin with. Echoes of Creation does have only one video program on tap, but at last producers are starting to understand that, depending on how a title is going to be utilized in a home theater environment, it makes sense to offer various audio options. Therefore Echoes of Creation offers both a music only as well as a (sparsely) narrated version. There is one passing problem with this setup, and it comes from some confusion on the main menu. While the menu options offer Spoken Word and Music Only, it seems to offer only Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes. Going to Setup offers Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes, but there seems to be an authoring error, as both choices brought up only the music track. What worked best was simply choosing whatever option you wanted from the main menu and then using the audio button on your remote to toggle through the four soundtracks. Strangely, choosing one of the 5.1 mixes from the Setup menu disabled the ability to toggle.

The audio options are both nicely realized, with David Arkentone’s soothing score a highlight. Arkenstone has released a number of really nice New Age and World Music themed albums over the years, and his use of indigenous instruments works brilliantly here, blended effortlessly with the often awe inspiring visuals. Even better, if you do want to hear narration, it’s not a nonstop barrage of largely meaningless drivel. While the narration does tend toward the New Age rubricks of “be here now” and the like, it’s pleasant, low key, and voiced extremely well by Karen Hutton. While some of the lines like “there’s nothing mediocre in nature” may lead to a passing giggle or two, there’s enough jaw dropping imagery here to get past the gooier aspects of the narration, and of course you can always turn it off.

But the real calling card here is of course the imagery, and it is truly stunning. We start off in the Sequoia National Park. These magnificent beasts of trees are one of the most unbelievable sights you’ll ever experience, and director Jan Nickman gets the viewer up close and personal to an astonishing degree. The camera moves like a dancer in between the gigantic trunks of these 3000 year old trees, and then tilts poetically upward catching glorious glints of sunshine peeking through the canopies of fir needles. It’s an awe inspiring beginning to this assemblage of lingering visions and it sets the bar fairly high, literally and figuratively.

Nickman travels a relatively limited route on Echoes of Creation, but manages to get a rather large variety of scenic views on tap. Location footage includes the Tongass National Forest and Prince William Sound in Alaska, Washington’s Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park and the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest, as well as the sequoias in California. There is a surprisingly varied look at various coastal areas, as well as several nice segments featuring seabirds and other avian wildlife. One nice sequence features a Bald Eagle dropping down into some rugged water to snag a fish for a snack.

There are several breathtaking elements to Echoes of Creation. One especially beautiful sequence features a sunrise ascending behind a mountain, and then a really striking assortment of dappled light dancing over various hills and dales. There’s also some unbelievable imagery of forest floors completely covered with moss, making everything look like it’s been carpeted in a sort of fuzzy green material. Waterfalls also play a big part in this video, with some lovely aerial shots utilized throughout the admittedly brief running time. Nickman does a good job with slow segues and nice edits throughout this project, creating a restful, meditative ambience that blends very well with Arkenstone’s score.

Echoes of Creation is a tantalizing harbinger of what may be in store for lovers of this kind of niche product. We’ve seen a slow smartening of various producers and distributors that consumers are not going to be satisfied with the “same old, same old” over and over again, and Topics seems to be at the forefront of trying to explore new ways to provide something at least potentially innovative, albeit on a small scale. The best part of this presentation is it ability to induce a calming, beta-state in the viewer and listener which hopefully allows for a greater appreciation for the natural wonders which surround us every day.

Echoes of Creation Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Echoes of Creation ripples onto Blu-ray with a generally very nice looking AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Overall, this is a beautifully detailed and sharp looking image that is especially impressive in some of the close-up shots. The opening segment in California's Sequoia National Park reveals the almost volcanic looking trunks of these giant trees in amazing detail. Aerial shots have a bit more softness, and occasionally suffer from some extremely minor digital noise, especially over shots of water and forests. Colors here are beautifully saturated and well defined, and the Blu-ray has no problem resolving some sometimes tricky elements like fog and mist. In fact textures overall look great, including that fuzzy green of the moss covered forest. But it's the play of light that may in fact impress most viewers of Echoes of Creation, and the subtle gradations of white scale here is amazing, with finely detailed hues and extremely subtle changes in light values.

Echoes of Creation Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As mentioned above, Topics has done a very nice job of providing both music and narration tracks. Unfortunately all the choices here are lossy Dolby Digital tracks in either 2.0 or 5.1 (for a total of four tracks, two each for music and narration). If you can get past your disappointment at not having lossless audio on this otherwise nicely produced Blu-ray, there's a lot to like with this audio presentation, especially with regard to a nicely immersive 5.1 mix. Ambient noises are beautifully mixed into Arkenstone's score, and best of all surround channels are used for virtually the entire running time of Echoes of Creation. Fidelity is excellent, and if you choose the narrated version of the video, Hutton's soothing voice is beautifully reproduced. This package would have gotten a 5 star audio score had Topics provided a lossless option, especially since Arkenstone's score is so evocative and immersive.

Echoes of Creation Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Sequoias: Ancient Giants (1080p; 1:21) is a brief, somewhat strange "dance" through the giant trees, this time with a white-robed female figure who pauses mystically at the base of several trees. Isn't it odd that we'd get this very brief extra in 1080p when the main feature is in 1080i?
• DVD Copy featuring a standard definition version of Echoes of Creation.
• Trailer for the companion video Sacred Earth.

Echoes of Creation Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

We strive at Blu-ray.com to provide authoritative in-depth reviews for everything from major blockbusters to more niche-driven titles like the ones offered by Topics Entertainment. Probably my most challenging reviews have been "ambient" titles like Aquarium or Fire. How much can you really say about fish swimming around a fish tank or fires sparking in a fireplace? (Maybe it's best if you don't answer that, especially if you've read my reviews of these titles). But some of the newest generation of ambient titles have been a joy not just to watch, but to review. Topics has quickly become one of my favorite niche distributors, and Rise and Rebel were among my favorite smaller scale releases last year. Echoes of Creation and it sibling release Sacred Earth are both entrancing, beautifully filmed enterprises that should delight anyone wanting something frankly more or less ignorable at a party, or indeed to concentrate and meditate on when relaxing at home alone. Highly recommended.