ONCE THERE WAS A TIME WHEN SPACE AND TIME WERE ONE

This offering from MBTW comes after their very satisfactory 'I wash my soul in the stream of infinity', an album of excellent parts. With this latest soundscape the concept from beginning to end is much more considered with the dual part Blakean Song of innocence and Boschian Garden of Delights stepping stones of a more extended musical and mystical journey, bookended by a prologue and epilogue. This leads to crescendos and plateaus that wash over one again and again. IWMSITSOI was, at times, full on and unbound, this new work seems more contained, you know what these musicians are capable of, but they reign the horse in and there is a real tension created through this contained force, that when unleashed, really shifts. An arabic influence in the use of drone, albeit hidden under layers of expert semi improvisation leads me to spin in circles. Complexity over time, like the long titles of their albums, acts as a repeat mantra. As in the the onion of St.John of Dionysius, the more you peel it the bigger it gets.

Once there was a time when space and time were one. Okey, that sounds very spiritual and I believe it is subject like that that should be discussed when you listen to My brother the wind, the Sweidsh modern psychedelic band which now has released their third studio album. This album could be a real success with many admirers and a get lot of appreciation. The cover is a lovely painting which fits my romantic point of view very much and the heavy containless music that it contains is interesting as well.

This is a totally new record and one person before me has written about it and though it was a masterpiece. "My brother the wind" is Swedish progressive super band with members from Gösta Berlings Saga: the guitarist and flutist Mathias Danielsson, from Anekdoten: the guitarist and mellotronist Nicklas Barker and from Magnolia the bassist and congaist Ronny Eriksson. The drummer in the band is Daniel Fridlund Brandt who also plays bass on one song. This music is dominated by guitars and the use of them are very talanted and the sound is light. On a first listening I though they reminded me of the fantastic guitar of Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson.

The music of this record is heavy, slow, hypnotic and certainly good to party with. The songs are long and ambient. They are nice to listen to but for me I don't hear anything that drives it. It doesn't contain melodies or structures for me to gather aroud. I would therefor, according to my taste and opinion don't call this neither interesting nor esepcially good music. I admit it's a lot of musicality here and fot being in this subgenre maybe it's awesome. I recommend listeners to at least pick one song and listen to it and I think "Epilogue"(6/10) or "Song of Innocence part 1" are the best. The others are unfortunaltely either annoying or uninteresting for me. The record is't bad so I won't go under two stars.

An eagerly awaited new studio production from this super group means a lot of expectations. At first, there is a minor change concerning the line-up to state - Mathias Danielsson, Ronny Eriksson and Nicklas Barker are collaborating with drummer Daniel Fridlund Brandt since 2013. Although having a soft spot for such music but not being active in designated genre bands beforehand the foursome have worked hard for a reputation in the space rock scene. And then their previous 'I Wash My Soul In The Stream Of Inifinity', released in 2011, appeared like a bombshell, turned them into an asked live band furthermore.

When starting to listen, I thought of a mix-up with the 'Live At Roadburn 2013' recordings somehow. Both Song Of Innoscence parts as well as Into The Cosmic Halo are offering solid mid-tempo space rock with jam character, which seems familiar anyhow. Misty Mountainside cares for some stylistical change while including indo/raga with flute and congas. The album reaches for real strength then when passing into the second half. I mean the inspired, while gripping and hypnotic Garden Of Delights which shines with excellent electric guitar interplay and a melancholic mellotron drenched outro on top of it.

I would also count Epilogue to my favourites, which convinces - alongside with the title track - due to a vivid bass performance, once again equipped with Nicklas' heart-wrenching mellotron contributions. While failing to detect something essentially different or new, 'Once There Was A Time When Space And Time Were One' does not make progress really, can't reach for those surprising moments I could experience concerning the forerunner albums. Nevertheless, just in order to adjust the conditions a bit, this one is a good purchase anyhow, where you definitely can't do wrong.

This is a more diverse mix of improvisational jams caught on tape than the previous studio album. Unfortunately, several of the songs fail to either engage me from the or else they fail to develop enough during their play to keep my interest (I can only listen to improvisational soloing for so long); the background grooves remain too static or else do too little of interest to gain my notice. (Even with close headphones listening.) The increased use of Mellotron is amazing wherever and whenever it is used, especially on "Garden of Delights," "Thomas Mera Gartz," and "Epilogue."

Song #2, "Song of Innocence, Part 1" opens wonderfully with a guitar sound like THE AMAZING or Jesse Colin Young's "Get Together"--which continues to wend and weave throughout the duration of the song. The drum play is quite enjoyable but the bass is very boring. This is unfortunately an example of both the strengths and weaknesses of this album: some great tracks are accompanied by some very boring parts. Favorite songs: the addictively groovin' "Epilogue" (4:19) 10/10; the hard-driving "Into The Cosmic Halo" (6:40) (9/10); "Song of Innocence, Parts 1 & 2" (8:10), and the title song.

A nice listen but nowhere as mind-blowing or engaging as I Wash My Soul in the Stream of Infinity. Three and a half stars. (A little disappointing.)

On their latest-to-date voyage My Brother The Wind takes a scenic detour from the noisier psychedelic flights of the band's first two albums. Previously their music was born in a rush of spontaneous enthusiasm, from conception to recording to real-time mixing all within a matter of hours. A little more deliberation clearly went into this session, and as a result the impact isn't as immediate.

But the album has its own specific resonance, on reflection a sign of maturity instead of a lack of passion (my knee-jerk initial reading). It's all about sustaining a uniform mood and emotion, minus some of the brash, youthful intensity that illuminated their earlier output. The evocative title track is a perfect example, beginning with an unexpected strum of luscious 12-string guitar and ending the in a haze of prolonged guitar harmonics, adrift in the aether. Surrounding it are a brace of otherworldly one-chord vamps, somewhat stereotypical to be sure, but on further exposure making a virtue of the band's attractive reto-'70s attitude.

The change of pace was cued in part by newcomer Daniel Fridlund Brandt, replacing Tomas Eriksson on the drum stool and bringing a measured rhythmic intensity to the quartet's otherwise incendiary space jams, in effect positioned as a tether holding the two guitarists in check. If the drummer's role in a band is to "stoke the fire" (quoting Jack DeJohnette, who ought to know), the flames in this set resemble a comfortable bed of embers instead of the raging blaze heard on their first albums.

Or perhaps the poached egg came before the steamed chicken, and it was the new musical direction that required a different improvisational approach. Either way, the results might actually prove more rewarding in the long run, for both the group and its fans. The fraternal wind isn't the same brisk zephyr we might have been expecting, but a cooling breeze can still be refreshing after a long hot spell. In cosmic terms, the album is perhaps analogous to the silent but awesome echo of an expanding interstellar nebula, eons after a cataclysmic supernova explosion.

A collective comprised of members of a diverse range of bands such as Anekdoten (Nicklas Barker), Magnolia (Ronny Eriksson) and the Gösta Berlings Saga (Mathias Danielsson), Swedish band My Brother The Wind deliver their third album `Once There Was a Time When Space and Time Were One', and it's another fully improvised, reliable collection of heavy psych rock, space music and immersive Krautrock sounds. The results are always enjoyable, if sometimes lacking something truly thrilling, but genuinely lovely moments still emerge throughout the disc.

After an opening `Prologue' of psychedelic drones, phasing sounds and backwards effects, the meandering yet joyful `Song of Innocence - Part 1' smoulders with slow-burn electric guitar embers and murmuring bass in the manner of the most mellow moments of Agitation Free and the Oresund Space Collective. After being sucked into a whirling vacuum of spinning feedback, the band crash back to Earth with `Ufo'-era Guru Guru-esque howling raggedness driven home by incessant pounding drums from newcomer to the group Daniel Fridlund Brandt. `Into the Cosmic Halo' lurches back and forth in tempo with scuzzy early Hawkwind-like charm, but it's really just a framing for aimless guitar soloing. The more meditative `Misty Mountainside' is an Indo/raga rock- flavoured droning acoustic guitar respite, with hypnotic flute ruminations reaching for the heavens.

`Garden of Delights' is a slowly building twelve minute guitar jam that grows in intensity with nice middle eastern themes slowly emerging, but although the piece is probably twice as long as it should be, the blanketing of unsettling Mellotron choir in the finale satisfies. `Thomas Mera Gartz' is a groaning sustained-note electric guitar and chimes drone, the title track is another dreamy acoustic guitar raga with thoughtful bass interjections, and `Epilogue' is a brisk and sumptuous up- tempo Mellotron soaked beauty. Spirited acoustic guitar races alongside sprightly drumming, warm relentless bass and glorious Mellotron rises and falls on clouds of hallucinogenic bliss.

`Once There Was a Time When Space and Time Were One' ticks plenty of the right boxes in the genres mentioned above, but some stretches get a little monotonous or fail to truly engage. It also has to be said that the shorter, ambient and reflective moments are more interesting than the heavier overlong jams, and they're also disappointingly the shorter pieces on the album. Still, this is a nice album, and the fanciful hazy cover artwork just lifts it that little bit higher still!

A solid three star album.