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QuoteReplyTopic: Sky Architect - A Billion Years of Solitude Posted: May 26 2022 at 02:48
I just can't understand how this band is so unknown and underrated, they are very eclectic and are able to sound like some of the better regarded bands in this place, like Änglagard, All Traps on Earth and, amazingly considered the first two, Haken. Is there some Ennio Morricone there or am I getting crazy?
Their bigger than life music, their constant changes between styles, their anthemic psychedelic choruses which somehow remind me of Astra or Tame Impala, their symphonic atmospheres intertwined with heavy-psych riffs, their jazzy moments... They have everything a lover of long, complex, ever-evolving songs may find interesting.
This album is so tragic and monumental... There is something evil about it...
The beginning his song reminds me to the last work of Elephant9 with some of the most tamed version of Buckethead mixed in it; but then everything changes. They have the most diverse influences.
There is even some of the brain-melting, high to the point of almost losing one's mind from The Sky Moves Sideways or Gong permeating the whole album. A well deserved listening in my opinion. I hope you all like it.
I love Sky Architect. My favourite album of theirs for the longest time was their debut, but after I saw them play the material from Nomad live, I think I allowed that to take its place at the top of my personal rankings. But there’s not an album of Sky Architect that I don’t think is wonderful.
I have their debut and Nomad albums. Enjoyed them both.
---------- i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag that's a happy bag of lettuce this car smells like cartilage nothing beats a good video about fractions
Last week, I managed to finally do something I wondered if I ever might. While I have listened to The Black Codex in its entirety, I had never managed it in one sitting. An obvious reason for this is that it is a good seven hours or so of music, but although that did come into it, what really stopped me from listening in one sitting, was that I had not purchased the album, so I was streaming only - and I am never able to listen to streamed music for prolonged periods.
I had intended on buying The Black Codex when I saw Sky Architect play last year, but it wasn’t there to buy. I wasn’t going to miss out again, when I saw Mayra Orchestra play a couple of nights ago, and I am now the proud owner of the boxed set. The most amazing thing, for me, is that even when listened to in one sitting, at no point did it lose my interest. I’ve listened to much shorter recordings, and become bored, but I actually enjoyed it so much that, even though I had no hope of getting through it again, when it finished, I put it back to the beginning and started it again. I fell asleep somewhere within the first 13 chapters, I guess.
As it was National Album Day yesterday, I figured it was the perfect day to give The Black Codex another run through. I started the day with Brett Anderson’s first autobiography, accompanied by his four solo albums. I continued, and ended the day (and Brett’s autobiography) with The Black Codex. Don’t skip, indeed! 😄
Chris has a wonderful range, and has several quite distinct singing voices. He uses this to perfection in The Black Codex, as the characters portrayed are easily identifiable by the different singing styles. What’s even more impressive, is that although the story is easy enough to follow lyrically (and even more so, when you have the book which gives further explanation, even during instrumental pieces), musically and vocally, much of the concept is still relatively easy to follow if you’re not paying attention to the lyrics.
For example, you could probably guess by the title of Scent of Fear, and you could definitely tell if you read the lyrics and text which accompany the song, what is going on at this point. But if I didn’t know the title of the track, and if I didn’t understand the language being sung, the way it is sung, and the music it is played against, is more than sufficient to tell the story.
Regardless of whether you pay attention to the story, the music alone is able to hold my attention such that I was able to listen to the full Black Codex in its entirety in one (loooooooong) sitting. That alone, amazes me more than anything else. I honestly thought I was going to have to take a break. But I was just swept away and kept away.
I suspect that, despite the length, The Black Codex may well be my favourite of all Christiaan Bruin releases. There’s not a single one of his solo adventures I don’t like (whether under his own name, as Chris, or his more recent Inventions), but The Black Codex really is something special.
Of course, while it is composed entirely and played almost entirely by Chris (who plays guitars, bass, keys, drums and percussion), some familiar names from Sky Architect and Mayra Orchestra do add small contributions at times. (Likewise, the majority of artwork and illustrations are by Chris, but some additional drawings are provided by Maartje Dekker and Yaroslav Gerzhedovich.
TL;DR The Black Codex is highly recommended! However, it’s really not an album for streaming. I have always enjoyed it, when I’ve streamed bits and pieces of The Black Codex over the last few years, but it’s something else to be able to listen to my own copy. Then again, maybe that is just because I’m still a bit old-school, and generally don’t find streaming to be particularly enjoyable? 🤔
Last week, I managed to finally do something I wondered if I ever might. While I have listened to The Black Codex in its entirety, I had never managed it in one sitting. An obvious reason for this is that it is a good seven hours or so of music, but although that did come into it, what really stopped me from listening in one sitting, was that I had not purchased the album, so I was streaming only - and I am never able to listen to streamed music for prolonged periods.
I had intended on buying The Black Codex when I saw Sky Architect play last year, but it wasn’t there to buy. I wasn’t going to miss out again, when I saw Mayra Orchestra play a couple of nights ago, and I am now the proud owner of the boxed set. The most amazing thing, for me, is that even when listened to in one sitting, at no point did it lose my interest. I’ve listened to much shorter recordings, and become bored, but I actually enjoyed it so much that, even though I had no hope of getting through it again, when it finished, I put it back to the beginning and started it again. I fell asleep somewhere within the first 13 chapters, I guess.
As it was National Album Day yesterday, I figured it was the perfect day to give The Black Codex another run through. I started the day with Brett Anderson’s first autobiography, accompanied by his four solo albums. I continued, and ended the day (and Brett’s autobiography) with The Black Codex. Don’t skip, indeed! 😄
Chris has a wonderful range, and has several quite distinct singing voices. He uses this to perfection in The Black Codex, as the characters portrayed are easily identifiable by the different singing styles. What’s even more impressive, is that although the story is easy enough to follow lyrically (and even more so, when you have the book which gives further explanation, even during instrumental pieces), musically and vocally, much of the concept is still relatively easy to follow if you’re not paying attention to the lyrics.
For example, you could probably guess by the title of Scent of Fear, and you could definitely tell if you read the lyrics and text which accompany the song, what is going on at this point. But if I didn’t know the title of the track, and if I didn’t understand the language being sung, the way it is sung, and the music it is played against, is more than sufficient to tell the story.
Regardless of whether you pay attention to the story, the music alone is able to hold my attention such that I was able to listen to the full Black Codex in its entirety in one (loooooooong) sitting. That alone, amazes me more than anything else. I honestly thought I was going to have to take a break. But I was just swept away and kept away.
I suspect that, despite the length, The Black Codex may well be my favourite of all Christiaan Bruin releases. There’s not a single one of his solo adventures I don’t like (whether under his own name, as Chris, or his more recent Inventions), but The Black Codex really is something special.
Of course, while it is composed entirely and played almost entirely by Chris (who plays guitars, bass, keys, drums and percussion), some familiar names from Sky Architect and Mayra Orchestra do add small contributions at times. (Likewise, the majority of artwork and illustrations are by Chris, but some additional drawings are provided by Maartje Dekker and Yaroslav Gerzhedovich.
TL;DR The Black Codex is highly recommended! However, it’s really not an album for streaming. I have always enjoyed it, when I’ve streamed bits and pieces of The Black Codex over the last few years, but it’s something else to be able to listen to my own copy. Then again, maybe that is just because I’m still a bit old-school, and generally don’t find streaming to be particularly enjoyable? 🤔
😍 Absolutely magic! 😍
#DontSkip
#NationalAlbumDay
This is too crazy, man. I have been unable to listen to the whole 7 hours. This is the Wagner debacle all over again!
^ I have listened to the whole thing in one go, only twice. But it can be listened to in smaller parts, and there is absolutely no need to listen to it all at once, to appreciate it. Indeed, Chris released it in separate parts, in an almost Dickensian episodic fashion. It’s a grand statement that doesn’t need to be listened to in one sitting, just as one doesn’t need to read a grand statement in literature in one sitting. But sometimes it can be fun to do just that.
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Topic: Sky Architect - A Billion Years of Solitude
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19 Oct 2019, Facebook, I wrote: