ROTVÄLTA

This album offers a singular huge suite, divide to six untitled tracks, conjuring a journey to the vintage acid rock realms of this fine Swedish traditional psychedelic band. The album covers are quite neat, containing only the names of the band and the album, plus the record company info on opening gatefold sleeves, which reveal a huge abstraction of organic sonic constructions when opened for astonishing moments of listening.

The musical progression starts slowly, creating a swirling mass of both pleasant and incoherent sounds, which settle as a long static and beautiful void, resembling little the style of early Tangerine Dream recordings. Then the bass guitar starts a bluesy progression for the band as basis for a calm and soothing cosmic playing in vein of their previous "Upon Which Areas The Circles May Be Drawn?" song. This beautiful theme starts later to gain power and escalate, building up tension. Instead of blowing out to an aggressive rock passage, there are only some chaotic noises introduced to the music, and later the storm gains a form of a tribal rhythmic trance passage. When I listened this epoch a first time, I felt this moment bit disturbing, but later accepted it as a witty choice of not doing something obvious a listener might expect. Usually the laidback psychedelic aural trips are not very challenging from their compositional structures, trying to avoid disturbing the neurotic listeners brains cemented to their cannabis-oiled primitive state. Well, anyhow, after the shaman drumming sequence the spirits of the netherworld are summoned, appearing as ghastly howling voices, quite similar as the howls on "The Origin of Supernatural Probabilities" composition from a band mentioned earlier as comparison. After this vision, another celestial and in my opinion very deeply touching motive emerges, created by organs, sound effects and careful quiet pickings of an electric guitar. The mellow moods continue by abstract sound space where an ebow-treated guitar sings with tribal percussions, tablas and a bluesy bass and drum progression. In fifth part the powerful bass and organs make room for more rock oriented jamming, featuring a really neat guitar soloing surely appreciated by late 1960's / early 1970's Pink Floyd fans. The climax has few slower motives in its wake, flowing finally to hollow halls of ghastly voices and a reprise of the lovely peaceful theme from the earlier moments of the record.

The long silence in the end underlines the impact of this record if one meditates it through without pauses, which is the intended way to listen this album. There is also fine impulsive vintage acid rock counterbalancing the ethereal calmness of much appearing ambient floating. I also felt there is similar philosophy on this album as in Yatha Sidhra's monumental "A Meditation Mass", an album I'm certain they have listened due mimicking that record's cover on their earlier release. Anybody interested of serene psychedelic tonal arts should not hesitate listening to this fine album. Along with their earliest studio recording, this album reaches the heights of imagination most successfully from their slightly unbalanced but still adorable discography.