STONES OF A FEATHER

This is the slightly modified 2016 3RD EAR EXPERIENCE, expectedly still deriving from Joshua Tree, situated somewhere deep in the Mojave Desert, California. The project is mainly driven by the couple Robbi Robb (guitar) and Amritakripa (synthesizer), as well as Jorge 'Bassman' Carrillo and Alan Swanson (keyboards). This in collaboration with a circle of like-minded fellas of course over the years, mostly living nearby. Experienced musicians they are, also deeply involved in the local cultural scene over there, in various ways. Always looking for new horizons, and this applies to their music in particular.

Wide open spaces, big skies and rugged landscapes - this marks an environment which will expand the musical possibilities quite naturally, especially unique to space rock. And now pay attention please, the opener Flight Of The Annunaki is accompanied at best by a video Casey Kiernan has produced, a professional photographer, who is running the Joshua Tree Photography Workshops. Really fantastic! It's a must! Some sort of dialectics - the album title, covering the music in its entirety on one side, but also self-contradictory somehow, manifests for the first time, as it all starts light as a feather with spheric synths, perfectly complementing the video sequences.

Kripa soon comes in with some other-worldly narration ... eh, is this played backwards probably? Or a new language similar to Kobaïan or Na'vi was born right here? No idea, sounds great and authentic anyway! But wait, this mysterious affair shortly evolves into a jazzy direction, due to the rhodes piano most likely, sort of losing orientation a bit though while having a breakdown hereafter ... and in the end leading into a furious heavy psych finale. Wow! Stones of a feather now! A tour de force. Hence you may have a little clue yet what will follow in addition ...

... anyway, even the old woman is dancing afterwards. Didgeridoo here and bass attacks there, fantastic organ work again, continual ebb and flow in behaviour ... until the Return Of The Peacock is occuring, who already stayed nearby since the year 2013 at least. Charming! Yes, this is very trippy and relaxed, decorated with flute, piano and sensitive guitar at best, quite similar to some songs produced by the band Quarkspace. And yep, it seems Darth Vader had a guest(?) appearance on Chungo, but a short one, as they are banishing him soon with some powerful dynamic. The dramaturgy stays 'til the end though, now it seems quite plausible why they have chosen just this song title.

Besides the opener Balladeer's Tale is another masterpiece ... and now I'm seemingly running out of attributes ... as Robbi and the other band mates are not running out of inspiration obviously. The song is wrapped up by some Black Sabbath feel, nevertheless drifting into a trippy hallucinogenic direction in between, this featuring some beautifully complementing guitar, synth and violin sequences. Showing some saxophone attendence Everlasting Sea only will appear on the double LP version, which is announced for the next year finally. And then - offered by a differing tour line up - Space Tripping has been recorded live in 2015 at Frankfurt, Germany, a high quality space rock jam for sure.

This time however I will prefer the studio excerpts. They are deriving from spontaneous ideas that came up during live improvisations on their 2015 tour and from free form jamming at the FurstWurld Gallery of Music and Performing Arts, where the band records. While guesting 18 local musicians in total 'Stones Of A Feather' is a product of a fruitful collaboration again. Needs time to explore. Richard Stuverud makes an excellent job on drums, not to forget. The proggy rhodes respectively organ appeals the more I'm listening ... well, that's enough methinks, now it's your turn.