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Astralfish: Far Corners
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Noh Poetry Records (NPR 010)
 Astralfish is a new ambient project by Don Falcone from the US and ex-Hawkwind singer Bridget Wishart. They have previously collaborated successfully on several Spirits Burning albums. Also featured are 13 other more or less familiar musicians like Gong’s Daevid Allen so theoretically this could also have been a new Spirits Burning release. On the other hand, this album is almost completely instrumental and the music differs a bit from the in itself very varied Spirits Burning stuff. The album combines space, ambient, jazz, rock and symphonic music and for the first time fully showcases Wishart’s EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument).
You can immediately recognize Daevid Allen’s glissando guitar in the short opening ambient piece ”Far”, and ”Lil Utburd” continues from there with its electronic rhythms, bowed bass etc. This is the album’s longest track and includes guitar by Steve Palmer. “Pepper Sky” is a mystical, peaceful track with some Eastern vibes and the beautiful ”Riding The Seasons” verges on classical music. “Seven 8” is an exciting and small-scale piece based on Wishard’s layered, wordless vocals and “Summer Snake” a soft, jazzy number with lots of wind instruments. ”Song for a New Banana Day” is a pretty psychedelic, interesting short piece, and the longer “Pacifica” keeps up the soft atmosphere including for example some great guitar by Doug Erickson. “The Otter” is a bit faster but also quite soft and minimal track that also has some acoustic guitar. Bringing to mind Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk, “Key Rings” is perhaps the most intense track on the album and this one exceptionally also has an acoustic drum set. Perhaps the best moment on the CD! ”Seeds at Night in a Trickster’s Yard” continues in the little more energetic style and it has great going that slows down and mellows out towards the end. “Foray” is a bit more experimental track while ”Cloud Gather” almost even starts to rock with real drums and guitar by Steve Palmer. The softer ”A Short Thaw” and ”Treepers” sort of bring to mind Massive Attack due to their electronic trip hop beats and the last track “Near” is a nice combination of acoustic guitars and electronics. In summary, Far Corners is a very pleasant, great and interesting album, although personally I might prefer some of the Spirits Burning albums that also have some heavier space rock touch.
home.earthlink.net/~falcone/astralfish.html |
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