ALMAGEST

Music is most interesting when different styles are combined into one album. "Almagest" is an album like that but you may never notice. There's an emerging of psychedelic music, electronic music and postrock. Nevertheless the style that's handled on this album sounds very natural. This is a very laid back record where the atmosphere is more important than the compositions. The sound of the atmosphere is a gorgeous landscape of lush and mellow keys. Therefore it could be filed under the ambient/electronic flag. Brian Eno must have been an important influence in creating this music. This album could be used for different purposes than just the listening experience. You could use it for mental healing or just to create a restful atmosphere in a room. I suppose the same thing goes for a lot of music in this genre, it depends on the reason why you're listening. The rhythms are slow, very slow. This is not the genre I play everyday. In fact sometimes I find this kind of music a bit boring. After repeated listens I started to like the album more. Especially "Pale dot" because of the succession of different excerpts. From a compositional point of view, there's also some noticeable postrock influence due to the slowly development of the melodies and sounds. Moreover it's not hard to trace psychedelic elements from the calmer parts of the first Porucpine Tree albums or No-man, most notably on "The spirit of the water" . When compared to PT, there's a flute on top of the astral atmosphere instead of a guitar. Like in these bands, you can find some samples of conversations integrated in the atmospheres.

To state that "Almagest" is one of most important releases of 2006, would be a lie. This music isn't really new or original. The atmospheres are nice but the compositions aren't outstanding with the exception of "Pale dot". This is a good album for people who like to listen to a soft mellow album every once in a while.