Incident at Cima is the 1995 debut album from Scenic, the group formed by Savage Republic and IPR founder Bruce Licher. Conceived as an all-instrumental soundtrack for the East Mojave Desert, Licher is joined by former Shiva Burlesque bassist James Brenner and drummer Brock Wirtz, with guest musicians Jeffrey Clark (Shiva Burlesque vocalist), Robert Loveless (former Savage Republic and 17 Pygmies member), Chris Manecke (from the Abecedarians) and John Ganem. Together, they have created an aural masterpiece which has received serious critical acclaim.David Fricke in Rolling Stone magazine writes that Scenic's music "suggests Ennio Morricone dune-surfing in Death Valley." Robert Levine in huH magazine describes the album as "a sweeping, swirling (sound) that's full of both darkness and wonder." Grant Alden in Raygun says "Incident At Cima plays like futuristic chamber music. It is like nothing else on the landscape." And that sums it up pretty well.Scenic's music is like nothing else on the landscape, and while there is definitely a relation to some of the sounds explored by Savage Republic during their eight-year existence, Scenic have created a mature and focused album which is a great leap forward. Incident at Cima is an evocative aural journey, a quite listenable and incredibly honest piece of music, and as such it has the potential to be appreciated by a wide range of listeners.The packaging for Incident at Cima includes a series of photographs Licher has taken in the East Mojave Desert which relate to the various pieces of music on the album, creating a complete audio/visual experience. Four of the songs on Incident At Cima are prominently featured in Stuart Swezey's 2019 feature-length documentary film Desolation Center, including the track "Carrying On To Cadiz" as heard in the main title sequence. Newly-packaged expanded Compact Disc edition includes the original album CD plus a bonus CD featuring 50 minutes of previously unreleased early demo recordings from 1992, both packaged in a numbered, oversized letterpress-printed folder with folding perforated insert.
