WEST, SPACE & LOVE

A wonderful companion LP to the numerous Oresund Space Collective albums, it might be fair to say `West, Space and Love' is the most successful, evocative and fascinating release Dr Space and his revolving door of cohorts have released so far. A beautifully atmospheric, floating, hypnotic and confronting middle-eastern psychedelic folk raga-rock space mantra chill-out work - phew! Fans of Ash Ra Tempel, Kebnekaise, Agitation Free, Brainticket and the early Vangelis album `The Dragon' will likely find so much to treasure here.

The play on words of `High Rise' could not be more appopriate, as constantly stoned and ragged unhinged electric guitar solos over buzzing winds and cool electronic textures that ebb and flow to build the tension. Maddening tabla and middle eastern percussion tap away throughout the entire piece to create a very disorientating atmosphere.

`Kafi (For Your Love)' is a reflective, heartfelt and spiritual sitar/drone piece with a deeply ambient and swirling keyboard middle very similar to the Manuel Gottsching/Ashra `New Age Of Earth' bubbling runs. Lovely and mystical.

The cosmic electronic effects, folky acoustic guitar and bluesy lead electric playing of the grooving `Spirit Blues' drifts amongst low-key synth washes and hypnotic tabla percussion. Sure to get you nodding your head in appreciation. `Repetition' lives up to it's name, although it's never boring. A long droning ambient piece full of sitar, tabla and glistening dancing crystaline keys, almost drifting into programmed/Tangerine Dream territory, something that several OSC albums have also done lately.

`Sitars In Space' is the most unsettling piece on the album. Although full of howling cosmic winds and long drawn-out echoing sitar, much of the piece travels through eerie and murky murmerring dark bass tension and groaning deep-space machine electronics. Like a sinister nightmare, this track almost compliments dark space works like Tangerine Dream's `Zeit' in parts, and it shares that albums' sense of overwhelming isolation and solitude.

The Oresund Space Collective albums keep coming along nicely, but hopefully the members involved in this wonderful diversion will continue to collaborate and release more quality works in the future! Each new release by the related Oresund Space Collective projects brings them closer to the classic drifting psych/space works of bands like Agitation Free they surely have in them. I buy everything the band releases and have yet to be disappointed. Every new release brings them closer and closer to a truly defining work.

But for now, `West, Space and Love' is a meditative and captivating album to place alongside artists like Daevid Allen's `Sacred Geometry' that successfully fuses ambient, electronic and ethnic/world elements to create an intoxicating and timeless psychedelic spacey journey.

Highly recommended. Four stars!