To The North

BY Rueslatten, Kari

(Customer Reviews)

$7.00

SKU: DZCD053

Label:

Despotz Records

: Category:
World Music

Add to wishlist

DESCRIPTION
REVIEWS
WRITE A REVIEW

"Since returning to music from an eight year hiatus in 2013, Kari Rueslåtten is definitely making up for lost time. 2014 saw the release of Time to Tell, her finest solo album to date, with the soft wintry melodies and her beautiful voice making it one of the highlights of the 2014- and later in the year she teamed up with Anneke Van Giersbergen and Liv Kristine to tour as The Sirens – playing a range of material from her previous band The 3rd and the Mortal and her solo career. And only 18 months after Time to Tell she’s already back with her sixth solo album To to North, another beautiful album with a lovely atmosphere, sounding new while hearkening back to previous efforts, and now we’re in December I can confidently say is my album of the year.

As usual with Kari, the album is centred around her beautiful voice – her soft ethereal vocals with a Nordic trill areas lovely as ever throughout To the North, a constant on a rather varied album. The sound throughout is crystalline, the production really accentuates her voice, and each of the instruments is clear as can be. The first track Battle Forevermore begins as a soft piano led ballad, with a beautifully sullen voice recounting the story of a love gone sour, with the swell of guitar in the middle building an electric, almost intense atmosphere. The electric guitar throughout To the North was almost absent in the former album Time to Tell, and it adds a lot throughout the album – as on the following rockier piece Mary’s Song – the guitar melodies and subtle synths creating a modern sounding track reminiscent somewhat of the Mesmerized album, with touches of Spindelsinn.

The next handful of tracks, show her folkier side, one she’s shined at since her career first began in The 3rd and the Mortal days. The acoustic guitar, wind instruments and subtle percussion on Three Roses In My Hands make for a sombre piece of Nordic sounding folk, while the electric guitar comes in with a soft reverb-y wash in Dance With The King, a more mordern piece but another where her folk side is exemplary in the lyrics and her soft voice.

Letting Go sees a return to the flirtations with electronic elements as explored on Pilot, drum loops and a slight effect on the vocals over a supremely catchy guitar riff drenched in delay see a small return to that experimentalism, with tremolo picked guitars and clashing drums coming in at the track’s great climax. Arrow in My Heart is the highlight of the album, the soft guitar creates such a lovely atmosphere, carried along by simple, but perfectly placed drums serving to create a perfect backdrop to Kari’s voice which is as beautiful as it’s ever been in her whole career – her intonation on each line is perfect, especially the high notes near the end of the song. The bittersweet lyrics are lovely, and with the emotion in each one, this is the one you’ll be playing on repeat after the album ends.

The last two tracks create a dark, brooding atmosphere that’s almost tangible. The penultimate, Turn, Turn, Turn is a cover of The Byrds track, but inverted from it’s upbeat pop to dark, folky moroseness. The crackle of distortion from the guitar creates a sombre fog, exemplified by a darker side to her voice and the plod of the piano that make it an intospective sullen, brooding piece. The closer To the North is the most atmospheric of the bunch, the otherworldly synths and slow brooding guitars create a thick icy atmosphere akin to being lost in a snowstorm. Her voice takes on a folky Nordic tone once again, and with the layering of synth and guitar it’s the closest in sound to Tears Laid in Earth than anything she’s done in the intervening years since leaving The 3rd and the Mortal. The guitar solo near the end is electrifying, and it’s a cold, wintry closer that more than lives up to it’s name, true Nordic beauty.

With such a short gap since Time to Tell, one could have been forgiven for anticipating a continuation of that album, but she’s pushed her sound once again. She takes elements of her previous albums, and even her time from The 3rd and the Mortal, but adds new elements and a crystalline modern production to create a fresh and brilliant release. Overall the album seems more sullen than Time to Tell, an upbeat album in places, but with a brooding atmosphere, more variation and that great production it’s a worthy follow up. And with hauntingly beautiful tracks such as Battle Forevermore, Arrow in My Heart and the title track in particular, it’s easy to fall in love with To the North, so much so that it’s certainly my album of the year." - Swirls Of Noise

Product Review

As a relatively short CD this runs a close tangent to Faun and Estampie and other bands of the Pagan Folk era. Also for fans of Lorenna If Kennett .Her voice isn't the strongest I've heard doing this sort of thing but then there was a layoff of a few years. I still liked this and wished it were longer.

Red Circle 1 - 2020-07-31 21:06

You must login or register to post reviews.

customers also bought

SEE ALL

Leprous
Malina

Progressive Metal

In a time where progressive music is rising and there are so many options available to new listeners, it takes serious guts and personality to turn heads anymore. Norway’s Leprous has done just that in recent years, and it has been such a joy to watch them emerge into the limelight of awareness within the progressive community. It is no wonder, however, as Leprous continues to mature and to cling ever closer to their hearts when crafting new music.Leprous is a visionary band that defies genre labelling, not just in the style, but also in their attitude. After releasing “Tall Poppy Syndrome” (2009), “Bilateral” (2011) and “Coal” (2013); these artists released their monster album “The Congregation” (2015) that spurred high acclaim and an enormous world tour. Leprous, however, is not a band that takes success resting on their hind quarters, as they believe in pushing boundaries, learning from their mistakes, and following their instincts. They are prepared to release their new album “Malina” this summer, and it is set to offer a left hook to the progressive world.Of all things, Leprous is not a band that can be caged into any single genre. They aren’t interested in any of that. What they do believe in, however, is pursuing their artistic passions and following wherever their hearts may lead. They have been celebrated for years for their evocative mix of polyrhythmic grooves, melancholy atmospheres, melodic vocals, and biting lyrics; but their new album represents a pure stream of consciousness in the changes they have made to their sound. It’s in this imaginative style of composition that the band finds “a lot of the beauty about composing and creating: There’s always movement.”The band, however, found their instincts leading them away from simply polishing the melancholy progressive metal of “The Congregation”. They followed their conviction about creating music that feels right in the moment, which they consider to be the core of all true musical expression. In the process, Leprous has become a band that is “more accurately defined as a rock band than a metal band”, though even that label is unsatisfactory and binding to them. This is music that expresses their souls, embodies their passion, and confirms their genius. They believe in making quality music that speaks to who they are right here and right now.About these changes, the band had this to say, "This album is the perfect example on how you can start with avision and ending up with a result that has nothing to do with the original idea. The writing of the album started out with the idea to perfect the sound and working method we began with on "The Congregation". While the writing process was actually pretty similar (30 sketches, elimination process etc etc) we gradually started noticing stuff with the sound and the songwriting on the previous album that we wanted to sound different. Gradually we realised what needed to be done. This album needs to sound more alive, more organic and more dynamic. The longer into the process the more obsessed we got with this idea”.“Malina” is set to be a change in direction in more ways than one. Right away, you can see that the cover art is more colorful and more mysterious than they’ve ever had in the past. The album itself has been nothing short of a labor of love. The album took 4 times as many days in the studio to record as past albums, as the band was certain that the sound they wanted would be found in the recording studio, and not in a digital mask that would be applied during the mixing stage.With this concept in mind, David Castillo of Ghostward Studios was brought in to produce and record the album to meet the band’s demands for a specific sound and the then went with Jens Bogren again to mix the album. The band was however adamant about what this album needed to be, “We wanted it to sound like it sounded. We did not want to "digitalise" the sound.”The members of Leprous have poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the process of creating “Malina”. They’ve challenged themselves to mature and grow in ways they themselves did not expect. It’s because of these amazing qualities that the band is set to conquer the music scene once again in 2017. Combining a new album with a fresh sound with their upcoming, biggest headline tour yet Leprous is ready to bring their passion and badass energy to fans and new audiences worldwide this year.
$14.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Haken
Fauna (2CD Mediabook)

Progressive Metal

"If you’re talking about modern progressive rock and don’t bring up Haken, you’re doing it wrong. Since the south English sextet started jamming together in 2004, they’ve been one of their genre’s most loyal yet, simultaneously, adventurous forces. And how do you honour such an eclectic, unpredictable career? You make Fauna: Haken’s most genre-busting and conceptually fascinating album to date. “The premise of the album when we started writing it was that every song would have an animal assigned to it,” explains singer and co-founder Ross Jennings. “They all have something related to the animal kingdom that we could write about, but they also connect to the human world. Each track has layers, and some of them are more obvious than others.” Musically, Fauna represents Haken at their most diverse. Taurus commences the album with its scraping heavy metal chords, as polyrhythmic as they are jagged. However, Ross’s melodic croon and the triumphant chorus are true Haken. Eyes Of Ebony is pure math rock, delicate in its start-stop clean guitar picking and chiming cymbals, while Island In The Clouds flaunts its bouncing bassline. Eighteen years deep, they’re still evolving and keeping their fans on their toes. Is there any truer definition of what making progressive rock means than that?"
$20.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Kingcrow
The Persistence

Progressive Metal

Describing Kingcrow today is quite a difficult task, but one could state that the influence of different kinds of music, from progressive rock, ambient music, alternative rock and metal are all present.With each release Kingcrow has taken a step further away from their original metal roots and is regarded today as one of the most exciting bands that Italy has to offer.“With the last record “Eidos” we finished what we call the “life” trilogy (Phlegethon , In Crescendo, Eidos) and when we started talking about the new chapter everyone agreed we needed somehow to step a bit outside of our comfort zone and refresh our sound. With that in mind I started to write a lot of music (ended up being 3 hours of music more or less) trying different things till I came up with a couple of songs that sounded interesting and fresh to us and showed the “x factor” of the new record. These early songs (“Everything Goes” and “Devil’s Got a Picture” were the first two written) sounded different from what we did in the past but still somehow sounding like us, with a kind of a dark ambient, more modern vibe mixed with a heavier rock attitude. Devilnax (graphic designer) was also determined to have a different cover style for the album, and after nights spent listening to the demos and discussing the lyrical content (for the first time all by Diego Marchesi) he came up with that very powerful image that fits beautifully with the main vibe of “The Persistence”.” -Diego Cafolla
$13.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Shankar
Song For Everyone

Other

"Song For Everyone heralds the return of the groove in Shankar's East-West-minded music, with former Shakti colleague Zakir Hussain on tabla, Trilok Gurtu on percussion, and Shankar's own manipulation of a drum machine tending to the rhythms. The result is a brighter, more outgoing record than its predecessor Vision, veering between Western acoustic and electric grooves and the complex beats churned out by the tabla. Jan Garbarek again shines beams of light on soprano and tenor, engaging Shankar's 10-string double-necked electric violin in some complex interplay on the title track. Some tracks are driven entirely or partially by the drum machine; "Paper Nut" has a particularly infectious revolving pattern. But sometimes Shankar overdoes it; the lengthy "Watching You" has an overly mechanized feeling that can be either mesmerizing or infuriating, depending upon your mood. On another track, "I Know," the Western percussion is gradually swallowed up by the Indian tabla. Fascinating, free-thinking music, beautifully recorded as usual by ECM."- All Music Guide
$13.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Santamaria, Robert & Ensemble Spatium
Jaume II: Musica De Fets I Llegendes

World Music

Solo album from the leader of Amarok. This is something very different but in a way related to Amarok's music. There are progressive elements to the music but don't expect a rock album."Finally, after a long cooking time that has lasted a 30 years, the most ambitious of all my musical projects finally sees the light. Jaume I, Musica of Fets i Llegendes. (Music of feats and legends). It is a personal vision about the life of this medieval monarch, in which I have mixed historical and legendary aspects in an undifferentiated way, and in which I have not had any problem when using the different musical resources (compositional, stylistic and instrumental) that I have deemed appropriate. In this adventure I have been accompanied by a host of extraordinary musicians who have made it rise far above what I thought possible. They are the Ensemble Spatium, the ensemble of persistence.The similarities between many of the songs of this album and the music of Amarok are evident, since they were composed at the same time, when I was working on the different Amarok albums. The music, like in Amarok records, is sung in Catalan and Spanish.The mixture of elements of contemporary and progressive folk, medieval music, classical and world music, the variety of instruments and voices from the East and the West, as well as the contribution of historical and poetic texts, make this CD (published to all luxury) a true initiation journey to this exciting time.”
$16.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Damnation Angels
Bringer Of Light

Power Metal

I can't remember a buzz on a band's debut since Circus Maximus. Perhaps due to the album being released in Japan a year ago and its unavailability elsewhere, maybe because they are lined up to play ProgPowerUSA. Whatever the reason the album finally gets a wide debut and it was worth the wait. Damnation Angels is a British symphonic metal band fronted by a Norwegian singer. He goes by the name PelleK and was a contestant on Norway's version of X Factor. The band's stock in trade is epic sounding metal that pays a huge debt to Kamelot. The instrumental passages take on the grandeur and scope of Nightwish. PelleK does a sold job out front - he's obviously listened to a Khan quite a bit. Highly recommended.
$14.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Rueslatten, Kari
To The North

World Music

"Since returning to music from an eight year hiatus in 2013, Kari Rueslåtten is definitely making up for lost time. 2014 saw the release of Time to Tell, her finest solo album to date, with the soft wintry melodies and her beautiful voice making it one of the highlights of the 2014- and later in the year she teamed up with Anneke Van Giersbergen and Liv Kristine to tour as The Sirens – playing a range of material from her previous band The 3rd and the Mortal and her solo career. And only 18 months after Time to Tell she’s already back with her sixth solo album To to North, another beautiful album with a lovely atmosphere, sounding new while hearkening back to previous efforts, and now we’re in December I can confidently say is my album of the year.As usual with Kari, the album is centred around her beautiful voice – her soft ethereal vocals with a Nordic trill areas lovely as ever throughout To the North, a constant on a rather varied album. The sound throughout is crystalline, the production really accentuates her voice, and each of the instruments is clear as can be. The first track Battle Forevermore begins as a soft piano led ballad, with a beautifully sullen voice recounting the story of a love gone sour, with the swell of guitar in the middle building an electric, almost intense atmosphere. The electric guitar throughout To the North was almost absent in the former album Time to Tell, and it adds a lot throughout the album – as on the following rockier piece Mary’s Song – the guitar melodies and subtle synths creating a modern sounding track reminiscent somewhat of the Mesmerized album, with touches of Spindelsinn.The next handful of tracks, show her folkier side, one she’s shined at since her career first began in The 3rd and the Mortal days. The acoustic guitar, wind instruments and subtle percussion on Three Roses In My Hands make for a sombre piece of Nordic sounding folk, while the electric guitar comes in with a soft reverb-y wash in Dance With The King, a more mordern piece but another where her folk side is exemplary in the lyrics and her soft voice.Letting Go sees a return to the flirtations with electronic elements as explored on Pilot, drum loops and a slight effect on the vocals over a supremely catchy guitar riff drenched in delay see a small return to that experimentalism, with tremolo picked guitars and clashing drums coming in at the track’s great climax. Arrow in My Heart is the highlight of the album, the soft guitar creates such a lovely atmosphere, carried along by simple, but perfectly placed drums serving to create a perfect backdrop to Kari’s voice which is as beautiful as it’s ever been in her whole career – her intonation on each line is perfect, especially the high notes near the end of the song. The bittersweet lyrics are lovely, and with the emotion in each one, this is the one you’ll be playing on repeat after the album ends.The last two tracks create a dark, brooding atmosphere that’s almost tangible. The penultimate, Turn, Turn, Turn is a cover of The Byrds track, but inverted from it’s upbeat pop to dark, folky moroseness. The crackle of distortion from the guitar creates a sombre fog, exemplified by a darker side to her voice and the plod of the piano that make it an intospective sullen, brooding piece. The closer To the North is the most atmospheric of the bunch, the otherworldly synths and slow brooding guitars create a thick icy atmosphere akin to being lost in a snowstorm. Her voice takes on a folky Nordic tone once again, and with the layering of synth and guitar it’s the closest in sound to Tears Laid in Earth than anything she’s done in the intervening years since leaving The 3rd and the Mortal. The guitar solo near the end is electrifying, and it’s a cold, wintry closer that more than lives up to it’s name, true Nordic beauty.With such a short gap since Time to Tell, one could have been forgiven for anticipating a continuation of that album, but she’s pushed her sound once again. She takes elements of her previous albums, and even her time from The 3rd and the Mortal, but adds new elements and a crystalline modern production to create a fresh and brilliant release. Overall the album seems more sullen than Time to Tell, an upbeat album in places, but with a brooding atmosphere, more variation and that great production it’s a worthy follow up. And with hauntingly beautiful tracks such as Battle Forevermore, Arrow in My Heart and the title track in particular, it’s easy to fall in love with To the North, so much so that it’s certainly my album of the year." - Swirls Of Noise
$7.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Frøislie, Lars Fredrik
Fire Foretellinger

Progressive Rock

Debut solo album from Wobbler’s Lars Fredrik Frøislie! Fitting perfectly into the 70s prog-rock tradition where the keyboardist makes a solo album between the band albums, this is music Frøislie has been doing, mostly alone, during the pandemic. Had it not been for the pandemic, much of the material would probably have ended up on a new Wobbler album - but then run through the Wobbler grinder and with English lyrics. In other words, this is unpeeled and raw, as spontaneous as possible without going through too many rounds of processing. Trying to preserve the impulsive - much of what you hear is improvised, and one-takes (preferably with playing errors and piano strings that break and the like). Trying to preserve the human aspect to a large extent, avoiding click tracks, auto-tune, MIDI or too much technology. Expect lots of old analogue keyboards such as cembalo, Mellotron, MiniMoog, Yamaha CP70 and Hammond organ. Four tunes; Four stories. The first song "Rytter av dommedag" is themed around Ragnarok, when King Rakne awakens in his large burial mound outside Romerike and, together with the old gods, creates real mischief. The second song “Et sted under himmelhvelvet” is dreamy, possibly set in a Renaissance garden near Florence or Arcadia. But in principle it can be anywhere where it feels good to be. It is partly about travelling to a place and feeling that you have been there before - only to find out that you had ancestors who lived there long ago. The third song "Jærtegn" opens in a frenzy, with a horse and cart speeding through the forest. The wagon overturns at the same time as there is a solar eclipse, and the riders become eternal wanderers in the dark forest, only visible to us now and then like the northern lights, as they vainly stretch their arms towards the sun in the hope of finding their way home. The final song “Naturens Katedral” is a depiction of the Norwegian mountains in winter where the cold is bitter, and blizzards and avalanches abound. It is also a search for bygone times when life was more basic out in the wilderness.
$15.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Oregon
In Performance

World Music

"Recorded live in Quebec, Montreal and New York City during 1979, acclaimed avant-garde jazz quartet Oregon’s great musical skills and styles are featured to great effectGuitarist Ralph Towner and clarinet, oboe and sax player Paul McCandless have been ever present since the band’s formationOregon have recently released their 30th album and, at the time of writing, have just finished a European tourDigitally remastered and slipcasedExtensive new notes"
$10.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Piirpauke
Piirpauke 2

World Music

1976's sophomore album finds the band continuing to explore the ethnic music of different regions from around the world. The music predominantly has an ethnic jazz sound but when guitarist Hasse Walli lets it rip watch out.
$14.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
McKennitt, Loreena
Lost Souls (Digipak)

World Music

*Fanboy Alert*After 12 years, Loreena McKennitt is finally back with a collection of new compositions. It doesn't sound as though she has skipped a beat. The Canadian vocalist/multi-instrumentalist has created yet another incredible hybrid of Celtic/World/Folk/Prog. The production is always impeccable on her recordings and Lost Souls is no exception - Bob Ludwig mastered this. Her extensive band creates a clearly defined sound that carries over from album to album. Against this backdrop of acoustic and electric instruments is Ms. McKennitt's mesmerizing voice. Listening to Lost Souls time stands still. That seems to be the trademark of a Loreena McKennitt album. It transports you out of your daily life. I swear I can feel my blood pressure drop when I listen to this! Its been a long time but worth it. BUY OR DIE!"The Canadian singer/songwriter's first full-length collection of original material since 2006's Ancient Muse, Lost Souls sees Loreena McKennitt delivering another richly detailed and alluringly cinematic set of worldbeat-infused, modern-folk pieces that hearken back to career-defining albums like The Visit, The Mask and Mirror, and The Book of Secrets. It's the latter LP that's echoed the most -- McKennitt states in the liner notes that a number of the songs were written around the time of The Visit-- with the elegant balladry of "Lost Souls" and the moving Canadian Forces Central Band and Stratford Concert Choir-assisted "Breaking of the Sword" invoking that album's emotional high point: Her lush musical rendering of the Alfred Tennyson poem "Lady of Shalott." Once again, McKennittlooks to poetry for inspiration, with W.B.Yeats and John Keats providing the narratives for "The Ballad of the Fox Hunter" and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," respectively, while she cites the works of authors Peter Wohlleben (The Hidden Life of Trees) and Ronald Wright (A Short History of Progress) as the motivation behind the evocative and ecologically minded "Ages Past, Ages Hence." While McKennittcontinues to incorporate Galician and Middle Eastern themes into her work -- opener "Spanish Guitars & Night Plazas" builds to a lovely flamenco crescendo, and "Sun, Moon, & Stars" invokes the sights, sounds, and smells of a Moroccan bazaar -- the bulk of Lost Souls is spent wandering the English countryside. It makes sense, as McKennitt's early work was predominantly Celtic in nature, and despite a dizzying area of exotic instrumentation -- nyckelharpa, oud, kanoun, lyra, hurdy gurdy, etc. -- it's clear that the rolling hills and temperate moors of the United Kingdom, as well as the extensive vistas of her Canadian homeland, are where her heart resides." - Allmusic
$18.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Pascoal, Hermeto
A Musica Livre De

World Music

Japanese reissue of this rare 1973 from the great Brazilian multi-instrumentalist.
$18.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
My Brother The Wind
Once There Was A Time When Time And Space Were One

Psychedelic

MY BROTHER THE WIND is an improvisational cosmic rock collective consisting of members of widely known Swedish acts Makajodama, Magnolia, Animal Daydream and most notably Anekdoten, one of the more widely recognized names in the 1990s prog rock revival.Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs during a single day in January 2013, Once There Was A Time When Time And Space Were One captures the collective's progressive soundscape qualities with incredible analogue studio production. The band utilized 6 and 12 string acoustic and electric guitars, Mellotron, flute, bass, drums, congas and more to complete the task. Expect 45 minutes of the band's most succinct material to date, recorded deep in the snowy, forested, Swedish wilderness.In 2013, MBTW expanded into an even wider fanbase, having been invited to play the mighty Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland, as well as at Duna Jam in Sardinia. At the invitation of Opeth’s Mikael Okerfeldt, guitarist Nicklas Barker returned to Roadburn to perform an improv set with Dungen guitarist Reine Fiske.Those who frequent the works of Popol Vuh, Amon Duul, Sun Ra, Träd, Gräs Och Stenar, Albert Ayler, Ash Ra Tempel, Gong, Pink Floyd and other visionary, psychedelic rock artists are advised to investigate this act. "Lush and instrumental for its duration, My Brother the Wind‘s third full-length, Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One (released by Free Electric Sound/Laser’s Edge), rolls out of the speakers much easier than its title rolls off the tongue, though both title and the work itself satisfy rhythmically. The Swedish four-piece — they now seem to be a bass-less trio with Nicklas Barker (Anekdoten) and Mathias Danielsson (Makajodama) on electric/acoustic 12-strong guitar and Daniel Fridlund Brandt on drums, but Ronny Eriksson plays bass on the album — reportedly recorded live to two-inch tape on a vintage machine, and the passion they put in bleeds readily into the nine-song/45-minute outing, fleshed with liberal splashes of Mellotron courtesy of Barker to play up a ’70s prog feel in a piece like the 12-minute “Garden of Delights.” That’s hardly the only point at which those sensibilities emerge, but even more than that, the primary vibe here is one of gorgeous heavy psych exploration, the band adventuring and feeling their way through the material as they go.On peaceful moments like the title-track, which arrives as the penultimate movement before “Epilogue” leads the way back to reality — accordingly, “Prologue” brings us in at the start — that exploration is positively serene, the 12-string complemented by spacious electric tones spreading out across vast reaches, but Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One offers more than drone and psychedelic experiments. Subtly pushed forward by Brandt‘s drums, pieces like “Into the Cosmic Halo” and even “Epilogue” enact classic space rock thrust, and even “Song of Innocence Part 1,” the first part of the journey after the backward atmospherics of “Prologue” introduce, has some cosmic feel amid its echoing solos. Its subsequent complement, “Song of Innocence Part 2,” swells to life on an even more active roll, waves of amp noise up front while drums and bass groove out behind, waiting for the guitars to catch up, which they do in a suitably glorious payoff, relatively brief but masterfully engaging, setting a momentum that continues well into “Garden of Delights,” a focal point for more than its length.Because the songs flow so well one to the next, some directly bleeding, others giving a brief pause, and because later cuts like “Thomas Mera Gartz” — named in honor of the drummer for ’70s Swedish proggers Träd, Gräs och Stenar — and the title-track have a quieter take, it’s tempting to read some narrative into the shifts of Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One, but with the material not being premeditated, I’m not sure that’s the intention so much as a signal it’s well arranged. In any case, the album offers an immersive, resonant listen, with tonal richness to spare and the presence of mind to keep a sense of motion even in its stillest parts and a balance of organic elements — Danielsson‘s recorder and Brandt‘s percussion on “Misty Mountainside,” the 12-string, etc. — amid a wash of effects and swirling psychedelia. This attention to sonic detail makes Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One more than just a collection of jams, and adds further purpose to the already worthy cause of My Brother the Wind‘s thoughtful musings, wandering and not at all lost." - The Obelisk
$13.00

ADD TO WISHLIST
Piirpauke
Piirpauke

World Music

1975 debut album on Love Records from this still running Finnish band. Piirpauke is led by Sakari Kukko who plays a variety of wind instruments as well as keyboards. The band explores world music themes incorporating elements of jazz...and then plugging in the electricity. The debut draws on influences from Romania, Bali, China, and Finland. Beautiful stuff.
$14.00

ADD TO WISHLIST