SUNRISE SUNSET PROJECT

A most charming debut effort from this Russian based artist.

Warm, dreamy and lush soundscapes is the name of this particular game, with so many nods in the direction of mid 70's Pink Floyd that one might fear whiplash damage. Still, apart from the searching, careful guitar soloing there's no large amount of replication going on here.

Sunrise Sunset project focus on the lighter side of the Floydian sound, and choose to add ambient-tinged dreamy sequences rather than more energetic themes to add variation to their warm, richly layered and often vintage sounding excursions.

A stellar effort for daydreaming and destressing, yet offering enough elaborate details to make it worthwhile listening to for enjoyment as well. And recommended to anyone who would like a warm, gentle and careful psychedelic-tinged experience.

According to Facebook, Sunrise Sunset Project is a multigenre progressive rock band from Saint-Petersburg, Russia. A combination of classical progressive and art rock, electronic music, jazz, trip-hop, ambient, atmospheric rock. The only result to date is this debut album, which was released in 2009. It is instrumental, so there are no lyrics, so instead each page of the booklet contains a painting representing a song. This care and effort in the presentation is carried through into the music as well, which is very Floydian in nature, although there are also some elements of Wakeman as well. It is dreamy, ethereal, dynamic, beguiling and entrancing all at once. The more one plays this, the more there is to hear, as layer upon layer becomes apparent.

It is a complex and extremely structured album where the guitar is often the instrument that cuts through to provide edge and power, but the arrangements are always sublime and it takes no effort at all to gain a great deal from listening to this. Unfortunately their website and Facebook pages don't appear to have been updated for quite some time so I would guess that they are no longer active. That is a real shame as this album has a lot to offer, and is well worth seeking out. www.mals.ru