Lokutara by Tim Arnold

I must admit that I hadn't heard of Tim Arnold until a few months ago. I've lived in Thailand for a few years and so haven't kept up with the music scene from that part of the world.

I came across the work of Mr Arnold by pure chance. Like me, he's an ex-patient of Wat Thamkrabok, and when I downloaded an album called Thamkrabok Music I came across one of his songs. It became my favorite track in the collection, so I decided to investigate more. I found his album Lokutara and immediately became a fan. While I was working on my book, 'The Last Escape', I played it constantly.

Lokutara was released in 2004. Much of the music is inspired by Wat Thamkrabok and he actually used a technique developed at the temple to compose his songs. The documentary 'from crack to cracks' shows how cracks, which occur naturally in stone in places such as caves, can be used to select notes on the musical scale. Tim used this technique to write songs for the album. Amazing to see him at work. This documentary was available on youtube but has since disappeared. Hopefully it will turn up again soon, as it's great to watch.

The tracks on Lokutara flow easily into each other and there isn't one dud on the album. They are all great songs. My favorite is River of Love, a song full of emotion and could easily be used as an anthem for the temple. Another favorite is walking through walls. Listen below;



Anyway you can check out Tim's music at;
http://timarnold.co.uk/

I would also recommend Thamkrabok Music;
http://thamkrabokmusic.com/