COSMIC GROUND 5

Cosmic Ground is the project of keyboardist Dirk Jan Muller from Germany who started this project in 2014. The music he creates from this moniker has a strong inspiration from cosmic (Kosmische) music in that it is all created from synthesizers and has a definate otherworldly aspect to it. The project's 5th album 'Cosmic Ground 5' was released in October of 2019 and has 8 tracks with a total run time of 75 minutes.

The album starts off with 'Sludge' (1:46), a short track that is dark and atmospheric, reflecting the title. 'Girls from Outer Space' (12:17) is a much brighter sound, and it commences almost instantly with a looped sequence (with a percussive element hidden in the stacatto notes) that acts as the foundation for the track, it's constant level and tone almost acting like a drone of sorts while echoing and expansive layers flow around it all. Later in the track, the looped foundation becomes more variable in dynamic and feel. The track is easy to get lost in as the music is not harsh, but it isn't necessarily new age-ish either. The color green is prevelant on the album cover, and is the case with pretty much all of the project's covers, and the sound definitely brings to mind the lively color. The foundation fades at 11 minutes, diving into itself and becoming linear drone.

'Misery' (4:25) continues the drone from the previous track and then, like a rising sun, sustained tones form a chordal drone giving a sense of expansion. The low drones remain more constant as the higher sustained notes ebb and flow. The sound is smooth and seamless. 'Azimuth/Drowning' (11:28) utilizes dynamic drones that fade in and out slowly. The tones are a bit darker here, and somewhat subdued. Percussive notes fade in later making pitter-pat sounds as the drones continue to flow in and out of existence. The looping notes change in texture as the track continues, some becoming more prevalent than others, very much like the Tangerine Dream sound with heavy synth staccato. More percussion is added, giving it a ticking and plunking texture. Intensity builds around 8 minutes in, and then backs off again.

'Compact\Space' (9:43) has a warbly texture in the upper notes while a low drone moves dynamically underneath. There is a more melodic quality to the sound, but it moves along slowly while soft bursts of string effects swirl in and out. The warble takes the place of the percussive sounds of the previous tracks giving the texture more smooth, but pulsating at the same time. The feeling of the track becomes more expansive as it goes on, thus following the pattern hinted at in the title and the warbly texture is lost partway through giving way to a sense of levelness. 'Delusion' (7:28) has a more icy, cold texture to it, again with a level of expansiveness, but this time feeling more metallic, dark and frigid, with a harsh wind underlying it all. Interestingly enough, the wind texture goes away after a while, but without that, the feeling is one of lonliness and more sparse-ness, as if the wind was your only companion.

'Operation:Echo' (18:12) fades in on a rolling, low-frequency tonal percussion loop. Changes in textures come along slowly and almost indiscernible, but there are changes in dynamic in some of the layers making certain tones ebb and flow and different times. The overall effect is quite mesmerizing with the subtle changes in texture slowly moving over the course of the track. 'Burn in Hell' (9:59) is a soft, yet dark and almost indiscernible track that just boils under the surface. It slowly increases in intensity and then decrescendos until the end.

The soundscapes on this album vary in texture and style and are quite distinct from each other. The first half of the album is more bright with movement, leaning more towards the Krautrock style, while the 2nd half is more subdued and dark, with subtler changes and with little regard to movement, more along the lines of ambience. However, the entire album is quite immersive, easy to just lose yourself in the soundscapes, and just as easy to use as background music. I tend to enjoy the first half the most, as the last two tracks tend to be a bit overlong and unchanging, but I think that is the point. Anyway, the production is excellent, the flow is smooth and the feel is relaxing. And, overall, green is the color.