Astral Eolith City

This is another album where most of the tracks flow into each other. The sonic vistas on ‘Upon a New World’ rise and fall constantly changing and coming up with new surprises to hold the listener’s attention.. This could be classed as space music and it is certainly flowing but with so much happening it must be a rather busy sector of the cosmos. I suppose the music could be used to relax to but I found that I was concentrating on all the different drifting and faintly pulsating elements too closely to become chilled. We drift to ‘Entering City Limits’ accompanied by tinkling water droplets of notes. As on the previous track the atmosphere created is one of optimism and an almost innocent curiosity rather than the dark depths explored by other cosmic musicians. At three minutes in a gently melodic sequence provides a structure for other tuneful lead lines to weave themselves around. ‘A Metallic RainFall’ describes itself quite well, making me think of all things clean, silver and shiny. The sounds still feel warm though and a faint wordless vocal gives the city the music is describing a somewhat spiritual quality.

After a short gap (was this on vinyl first?) we get ‘Machines 2093’ with suitable bleeps and automated sounds but never getting too bombastic. This machine is obviously of the electronic kind rather than pounding pistons and hissing steam. Half way in a simple sequence and an oriental sounding repeated motif combine together and are very pleasing on the ear, again full of optimism. Drones take us to the ‘Hologram Forest’ This track is quite a bit darker and faintly ominous. Plenty of space is used to heighten the atmosphere still further. We then move into the final movement ‘The Departure’ where more wordless vocal pads take us back to the warm and friendly air that pervades most of this album. It is a beautiful few minutes that finish a very pleasant album off perfectly. (DL)

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