Ayahuasca: Welcome to the Work

Once a young musician fronting the band Noise Addict and who continued with an earnest emo/power-pop solo career, Ben Lee has apparently been looking into the spiritual properties of the psychoactive mixture ayahuasca (a.k.a. yage) most often associated with the native population of Amazonian Peru. It\'s led this 20-year music veteran to record his strangest album to date. With collaborator Jessica Chapnik Kahn (an Australian musician and actress), Lee creates a largely instrumental album that\'s psychedelic and meditative (\"Invocation,\" \"Meditation on Being Born\") and far removed from the musician who once sang \"I Love Pop Music.\" Where his previous album—2011\'s *Deeper Into Dream*—made literal connections to his spirituality, *Ayahuasca* makes those connections felt. When drums and acoustic guitar show up for \"The Will to Grow,\" it\'s a near-shock to finally hear Lee\'s voice so high in the mix. Even then, he finds a way to make the melody one of hypnotic potential.

Ben Lee's ninth studio outing pretty much lays out its mission statement in the title.