EGO THERAPY

SURYA KRIS PETERS is the moniker for the solo project of German musician Christian Peters. In 2007 he founded the seemingly still active stoner rock band Samsara Blues Experiment, in which he plays guitar. There are three S.K.P. albums this far. Ego Therapy -- released only digitally -- is the second one, in between The Hermit (2016) and O Jardim Sagrado (2020). Peters plays electric guitar, modular synthesizer and keyboards, and he's accompanied by Jens Vogel on drums and percussion.

Especially for the 15-minute opener 'Angels in Bad Places', the subgenre might have as well been Krautrock instead of Progressive Electronic. The music is very, very trippy. Popol Vuh and Klaus Schulze are mentioned as influences in the artist bio, but unlike with those, in this music the electric guitar and percussion are central. However, the ever present synth carpet is very thick and layered, in the style of Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Düül II or even the early Tangerine Dream.

Most of the 53-minute album's ten tracks are roughly between two and five minutes. The title piece has some New Age -like meditative spirit in the slow tempo synth washes. The rhythm pattern of the acoustic percussion creates a hypnotic feel, and the electric guitar is used sparingly. If you removed the slightly distorted guitars, the faster-paced and more drums-heavy 'Beyond the Sun' could serve as an instrumental backing track for an early 80's synth-pop artist. Six minutes' length is perhaps more than enough for this. The album keeps operating between psychedelic Krautrock and electronic music, at times reminiscent of Tomita, at times the poppier side of Jean Michel Jarre. Also a psychedelic Pink Floyd influence can be heard. The guitar is present to a varying degree. In the heart of the 2½-minute 'Wizard's Dream' is an improv-styled guitar playing. One negative notion I have about this album is that the guitar sound tends to stay rather similar all the way: a bit gritty and distorted, typical for stoner rock. A good thing is that the latter half of the album shifts the emphasis more on synths and and electronic music, further from Krautrock.

The relatively catchy, synth-centred 'Gemini IV (The Sky Is Open)' contains astronaut's voices. 'Sleeping Willow' also concentrates on synths, this time with a slight Vangelis resemblence, and 'A Fading Spark' (1:56) is rooted on a sharp- toned synth riff. The closing piece 'Atomic Clock' (8:14) makes me think of the latter half of the Tangerine Dream track 'Through Metamorphic Rocks' (on Force Majeure, 1979). Due to the increasing variety in style, my 3½ stars deserve to be rounded upwards.