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REVIEWS
Eclipse
Here the 34 minute title track
opens the album and it's into a dark territory of seriously
slow-motion space synths and cosmic layering. You notice that all the time
the soundscapes
change shape while still retaining the warm, emotive feel that this
particular track exhibits,
as it slowly travels an intergalaxian journey to become a truly
atmospheric slice of drifting,
open-ended space synth.
The other track, 30 minutes of 'Apollo' is one of his most sonically
varied tracks to date with
all sorts of synths and soundscapes phased and layered to produce an ever
changing sea of
sounds that, while stil always spacey and cosmic, actually has a good deal
of variation and
depth, the drone factor accompanying the space music to provide a quite
unnerving set of
passages, some of which relate as much to something like 'Zeit' or similar
and you could well
imagine this piece being some lost '70's track.
It drifts, drones and flows its way through the blackness of space,
nothing overly "light" about
it, and even verging on the intense once more at times along the way. The
synths become richer
sounding as the track develops and the mood changes to one of greater
serenity although still
quite dark, but another engaging track all the same.
Dreams and Visions
From the excellent New Zealand
space music musician comes this album featuring
his trademark two epic tracks.
The first, 30 minutes of 'Dreams Of Galileo' is a more intense,
drone-oriented track
with layers of synths that really have that kind of deep, dark brooding
quality to them,
as the textures tend to resemble laser beams of sound and really drive
through.
On the other hand, the near 40 minute 'Visions Of Edgar' is a lot more
spacey and spacious,
substituting an expansive, open approach for the dark clouds that appeared
before, and the
approach could not have worked better on what is a slowly unfolding,
engaging slice of
multi-textured cosmic synth music, providing a neat contrast and a
huge-sounding piece
of music for all its lightness.
A Light Years Journey
Until now I only knew the New Zealander Russell Storey from his
experimental
track “cosmic kiwi” on the analogy project. It is an artist who
produces rather
deep spacemusic that mostly is quite long-stretched. Many of his albums
contain
not more than two tracks. Atmosphere is an important
factor in his music, as
mentioned; this atmosphere is very spacey but on later works some more
ambient
can be heard. You must be in to this kind of atmospheres. If so,
Storey’s music
can be a special experience.
The title track lasts more than 40 minutes. When I listened to this piece,
I got the
feeling that I experienced Carl Sagan’s space journey with him along
“billions and
billions of stars”. This music has the capability to bring about a
certain image with
the listener and that is fine. Storey does this through long-held floating
sounds
(for those who are interested among others Roland D50 sounds) and a dark
undertone.
The sounds are not really soft, so it is not ambient but clearly space
music.
“Vortex” the second piece, is somewhat softer but again very spacey.
This track has
traces of the music of Michael Neil. Nicely done.
A Light Years Journey
The opening track lasts 40 minutes and
for this we are headed out into deep, deep outer
space with a myriad spacey, cosmic synthscapes that soar, drift, drone,
float, swirl and
resonate, as this mighty space synth epic unfolds, deep, dark and
meaningful, not to
mention one seriously engaging piece of music.
Despite being called meditative, the 30 minute 'Vortex' is altogether more
"heavenly" with
a gorgeous set of flowing, higher-register synth spacescapes that slowly
drift in quite
beautiful fashion, constantly changing shape in slow-moving, deep space
fashion, all of
which makes this the finest of all the space music albums he's done to
date and the ideal
starting point for anyone into some outstanding cosmic synth music without
a rhythm in sight.
Earth Star
Earth Star makes no attempt to mislead
its listeners - from the first moment, the album lets
you know what you're getting. A broad, major key sweeping synth fades in,
filtered sounds
play in the background, and all is epic. Opener Aurora Borealis is an
example of how well
some pieces of music fit their titles: with its beautiful synth washes and
subtle rumblings,
it is easy to imagine the piece as a soundtrack to the northern lights and
their grand majesty.
It would be easy to say the remainder of the album follows a simple
template; certainly, the
template is set. However, each of Earth Star's five tracks has something
individual to bring
to the album, and the record is a strong, cohesive journey from start to
finish. The title track
is possibly my favourite piece, with very soft synths adding a slow-moving
feel to a series
of subtle tapping sounds, which lends the track a definite sense of space
and presence.
An airy melody appears halfway through, which gives the track a different
focus, adding
a sense of subtle grandeur. Meridian adds occasional dissonance to the
mix, bringing in
an occasional sense of unease to the otherwise peaceful beauty. Infanitum
lives up to its
title, with blissful synths swirling on seemingly forever. The album
closes with Nebula,
the most tense sounding piece on the album, with suspense filled chords
and strange,
wobbling synths, occasionally punctuated by clangs and deep, booming
rumbles. The
piece brings us out of the comfort zone of the initial run of tracks, and
brings to mind
the realisation that while admiring the beauty of the stars all around,
we've been drifting
further and further from Earth.
I am not sure why I chose Earth Star as my first Russell Storey album, but
I'm glad I did,
as it is a very strong work from start to finish, with a range of pieces
broad enough to keep
interest, and similar enough to keep the album streamlined and coherent.
An excellent
album of spacey ambient and drone. Ross Baker
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