“This is a long cosmic symphony where prog music and EM hold an impregnable sonic view on the imagination of a listener floating in space”
The Stratomusica Suite 56:37
(Music for the Balloon Mission to the Edge of Outer Space)
a) Prologue
b) Towards the Destiny
c) Moments of Suspension
d) Suddenly Jet Streamed
e) At the Gates of Cosmic Mysteries
f) Epilogue (For all the Explorers)
(CD 56:37) (V.F.)
(Cosmic Prog Rock)
A grave note of piano comes crashing down, awakening riffs a la Take a Pebble from E.L.P. which are coloring the somber and disturbing annihilated ambiences of this prelude to this long piece of music that is THE STRATOMUSICA SUITE. A sonic opus in 6 acts which depicts the atmospheres and the horizons of the Strota Musica mission (mission which consists, by means of cameras which float in the stratosphere, to present a view of the Earth as realistic and close as the human eye) THE STRATOMUSICA SUITE is no more and or less a long cosmic symphony where the progressive and the electronic music unite moods and rhythms in a concept work with an impregnable sound view on the imagination of a listener who floats in space. And the references to the icons of the progressive music, in particular Pink Floyd and Hawkwind, abound on this first collaboration between Józef Skrzek, iconic figure of the Polish progressive music, and Przemyslaw Rudz, undisputed master of the Polish EM scene.
Prologue plunges us into a dark universe where a fascinating sonic fauna, as much organic than aquatic, caresses the cosmos under the soft looks of a synthesizer and of its tearful veils. The tumult of the piano notes, as well as the crushing of its strings which sound like an out of tune Kyoto, wither little by little, letting hear organic breaths of which the groans in the shape of rattlers flee towards the depths of the cosmos and its slow morphic synth pads. The synths pour moanings and are cooing like stellar whales in drizzle a little more somber and in waves tinted of black. Blindly, the listener feels submerged by a weightlessness. While more and more dense, the lunar synth layers and the singings of the astral mammal are floating like sonic eels up to the deeper of the universes. And there it is, at around the 13th minute, that the synth waves darken and make the first rhythmic phase hatch out. At the beginning, the rhythm is timid. Light, it jumps up freely on sequences with a slight funky tone and through the loops of a synth with a zest of psychedelic aromas. Percussions are boosting the movement which, if seems a little bit jerky, rolls with fluidity in the singings of superb synth solos filled by analog tints. This invigorating phase of rhythm borders the 10 minutes before that some other morphic moods seize again the long movement of the album. This time these ambiences are more celestial with synth pads and lines as well cosmic than organic before that a clearly more aggressive structure of rhythm, as a furious big progressive rock fed of heavy riffs and deafening synth layers, cuts out the astral sedation of the listener for a good 8 minutes perfumed of delicious solos of a jazzy genre. This is doubtless my best passage of the album which takes refuge for a 3rd time in its very ethereal cosmic ambiences. We are in the 43 minutes and we float in sound spheres on horizons embellished by lines of synths to the sibylline aromas and with Floydian floating harmonies. The chuckles of rattlers watch over ambiences tinted of aquatic pulsations while the rhythm takes back the skin and the funky charms of Towards the Destiny for a very last one lap where a brief moment of ambient wandering precedes the very last rhythmic merry-go-round which encloses the 6 chapters of THE STRATOMUSICA SUITE which aims to be a very beautiful album of cosmic rock as progressive as electronic.
Sylvain Lupari (July 24th, 2014) *****
Available on Generator pl
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