Living Landscapes: World's Most Beautiful Sunrises & Sunsets Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Living Landscapes: World's Most Beautiful Sunrises & Sunsets Blu-ray Movie Review

Sunrise, sunset.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 9, 2011

Perhaps it was simply the fact that I reviewed the film version of the iconic Fiddler on the Roof earlier this week, a show with that incredibly nostalgic song “Sunrise, Sunset” chief among its pleasures, but I couldn’t help but think of the passage of time as I watched the spectacularly gorgeous World’s Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets. It goes without saying that we get daily reminders of the rhythms of life, perhaps none more stunning than the procession of that glowing orb through the sky, at least if you’re lucky enough to live in a climate that gives you regular “access” (those of us in the Pacific Northwest have a notoriously difficult time gaining that access). But while thinking about time (and perhaps dare I say it even mortality) might be deemed depressing or a downer, the nice thing about the Digital Environments Living Landscapes series is that they are typically so calming that even such normally moribund thoughts evaporate into a feeling of well being and relaxation, and World’s Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets is certainly no exception. Filled with glorious imagery culled from several of Digital Environments’ head honcho Michael Heumann’s many trips around the world where he gets some wonderful hi-def footage for his releases, and set to a soothing array of soundtrack music by some gifted artists, World’s Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets is yet another winning example of why “ambient television” releases have become so enduringly popular in the high definition Blu-ray era.

World’s Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets doesn’t exclusively focus on the sun, of course, though our fiery heat and light provider is of course featured in most if not all of the shots included on this compilation. We get off to a very soothing start with some lovely shots of a beach in Hawaii. The surf crashes eloquently against the shore while the fronds of a palm tree waft lazily in the breeze. The elegant glinting of light on water helps viewers to achieve a near-immediate Beta state of calm and meditative focus. A timeless quality to the imagery is virtually palpable from the first shot, and that sense of eternity is certainly part and parcel of the next segment, featuring the spectacularly alien vistas of the American Southwest, most likely culled from Living Landscapes’ Sacred Canyons release. Amazing views featuring impeccable deep focus work offer the viewer the odd desert sights of arches and bizarre rock towers that seem to be the handiwork of some ancient culture.

We then get a mini-tour to some exotic other locales, including the snow laden peaks in Chile’s Patagonia region and one of the more interesting and appealing segments of World’s Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets, a glimmering sequence set around the impressive Big Buddha Temple in Thailand’s Koh Samui. This huge structure is featured in a number of impressive shots, both up close and personal as well as from a distance, which actually gives the viewer a better sense of proportion and how large the statue (if it can even properly be called that) actually is.

That ping-ponging back and forth between American and foreign locations continues for the rest of the piece, with some fluid and relaxing footage of such disparate climes as Klamath Lake in my home state of Oregon, the savannahs of Tanzania and the lush environments of Bali. Heumann weaves together this footage with an eye for both the particular delights of any given location as well as the overarching (literally and figuratively) utilization of the sun’s daily trek through the sky as a unifying principle.

As with a lot of the Living Landscapes series, this offering features a wealth of extremely evocative music, which is very well mixed with soothing but never overpowering ambient environmental sounds. There is a surprisingly wide variety of musicians providing a very distinctive and diverse set of accompaniments here. Among the many artists featured, many of whom play ethnic instruments redolent of whatever locales their music underscores, are Makana, Gary Malkin, Jose Reynolds, Radhika Miller, Cam Newton, Tokenki, Raphael and Donald Regalmuto. The listener is offered everything from New Age acoustic guitar, to washes of synth drones, to Andes flutes in a very enjoyable array of what can truly be called “world music.”

As with virtually all of the Living Landscapes series, there’s a deceptively simple element to the footage and soundtracks which can lull the viewer into thinking nothing is happening. And that of course is probably part of “ambient television”’s allure. While the Living Landscapes series by its very design doesn’t offer the “wow” factor of some of Topics recent releases, which tend to blend a more vigorous editing element into the mix, there is no lack of amazingly beautiful footage and music to be seen and heard in many of these releases. In that regard, World’s Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets is certainly one of the better releases Living Landscapes has done over the past several years. It can’t exactly be termed a “whirlwind” world tour, and therefore might be inaccurately described as having a “breathless” quality. But it can’t be denied that a lot of this piece will probably take many viewers’ breath away.

Living Landscapes: World's Most Beautiful Sunrises & Sunsets Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

World's Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets continues Living Landscapes' mostly excellent foray into Blu-ray territory, with a nicely detailed and very colorful AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. In fact the beautifully golden, amber and orange-red palette this Blu-ray exploits is by far the best thing about the disc. Colors are robust but never bloom, and there is a very satisfying representation of the fine gradations of light hues throughout the piece. Some of the scenes with the sun and water are especially impressive, with glassy smooth liquid appearing so real you feel like you can almost reach inside your television and touch it. The look of the sunlight glinting on the water is also beautiful, again never blooming, and in its own way quietly profound. Some of the midrange and far range shots suffer from very minor softness, perhaps due to the lens utilized (the Big Buddha Temple shots offer a good example). As with many of the Living Landscapes releases, there are occasional very minor artifacting issues, typically brief moments of aliasing or shimmer, but this is actually one of the better Living Landscapes releases in that regard, and these anomalies are very few and far between.

Living Landscapes: World's Most Beautiful Sunrises & Sunsets Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

When was the last time you ever heard of a filmmaker actually asking for a critic's advice? Never? Well I, too, was amazed when Living Landscapes' creative director Michael Heumann contacted me after one of my first reviews of his product and asked how he could improve his releases. Two of the things I recommended were a better compression codec (his early releases utilized MPEG-2) and, especially, going to lossless audio. I'm very happy to report that this release does in fact offer a gorgeous lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, which presents the lovely assortment of underscore and softly mixed ambient environmental sounds in a lusciously immersive soundtrack. The music washes through the surround channels and occasional sounds of gurgling water or bird calls or the flutter of palm fronds in the breeze waft through the soundfield very appealingly. The DTS track effortlessly handles the very wide variety of music included on this Blu-ray, presenting the glittering clarity of acoustic guitars or the drone like, low frequency washes of synthesizers with equal fidelity. There's not a lot of dynamic range here, as might be expected for a disc which is after all meant to lull you into a state of relaxation. But fidelity is absolutely wonderful and Heumann is to be commended for going the lossless route on this release. One thing that could have completely put this release over the top would have been the ability to choose between a music/ambient environmental sounds track and one featuring only the environmental sounds. I know, I know, some critics are never sastisfied.

Living Landscapes: World's Most Beautiful Sunrises & Sunsets Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with most Living Landscapes releases, no supplements are offered on this budget priced Blu-ray.

Living Landscapes: World's Most Beautiful Sunrises & Sunsets Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Living Landscapes: World's Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets is another very evocative and soothing release in this line of Blu-rays which provides an excellent entrée into what I have perhaps capriciously termed "ambient television." The Living Landscapes releases almost always offer wonderful imagery and usually extremely fine soundtracks, and World's Most Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets is no exception. In fact, this is one of the more gloriously visual releases in the series, and the soundtrack, offered here on a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, features an amazingly diverse set of musicians, many of whom perform ethnically oriented music which really helps to establish the various places which are being featured. This is yet another release which can play "in the background" during social gatherings, but which doesn't disappoint if it's actually paid attention to in quieter, solitary moments. Recommended.