***1/2 The Timewriter

JIGSAW PIECES

(Twisted)

The liner notes to Timewriter Jean F. Cochois's second CD call its soft electronic swirlings "21st century soul music." Not really -- the true grit of soul is not to be found in Cochois's dreamy orchestrations and moon-walk beats. What the serious house-music buyer will find is 15 tracks of whispered sensuality, a kind of quiet-storm thump music. Fans of CDs by Robert Miles, Chicane, and Wamdue Project will recognize Cochois's lighter-than-air idiom, his lullaby melodicism, and the imagistic, wordless vocal effects with which he gilds wisps like "Almost Lost (on a deep train tonight)", "Tender Wind on a Summernight," "Sunset Walkin'," and "Here Comes the Sun." Unlike the very Euro-oriented Miles and Chicane, Cochois feeds on US street music. Deep-house pumps like "Photographic Life," "Deliver Me," and "Belief," for example, bring the talk of new-jill babes and hard-nosed homeboys directly into his silk-trot dreamland.

-- Michael Freedberg