MEMOIRS OF ONCE

Battlestation's 2023 offering gives us very profound and atmospheric electronic music evoking vast spaces. Mostly it is slow and minimal, but they really invested into the sounds, which always have life and depth, so that even droney parts breath and keep the attention up; you do need to be in meditative mood though. Some parts are mysterious, dark, and harmonically undefined, some others very harmonic and friendly. The third track Malaise is the only one that centrally features powerful percussive sounds (a little bit more of that toward the end of the album). Some others still have a clear rhythmic structure, for example RSYT driven by a piano motif, actually pretty much the only non-electronic element on the whole album. The two mentioned tracks are certainly highlights, the first one shaking the atmosphere of the album up a bit, the second one with a masterfully composed and developed chord sequence and moving development from beginning to end. Most other tracks rather have this meditative coming out of nowhere - going into nowhere feel to it. Another exception is the dramatic final track The Ghost of Lady Farewell.

Battlestation's electronic albums are all on top of what the genre has to offer, with great musicality and sense for atmosphere. I have to admit though that I often find the long form more appropriate for this kind of music. Battlestations used this on the previous 2021 Splinter albums. On Memoirs of Once, the tracks are maximum 6 minutes, often just around 3. Sometimes there may be a bit of disappointment that we're already done with one track and have to leave, and the next one will open up a different landscape of sound. The advantage is that the album, despite its meditative appeal, is richer in ideas and mood changes than other work of this kind. It took me some time to get into this, but ultimately the "vast spaces in short format" concept still keeps me on board, and kudos to the artist for developing their approach and not standing still, while still delivering to those like me who loved their previous offerings. 4.1 stars.