AGAPANTHUSTERRA

It's been a while since I heard a new psychedelic record. Most refreshing when compared to recent prog releases. This disc is entirely instrumental. I assume it has the strongest effect when listening to it by the light of the stars only. There's a big range of musical styles present varying from prog to psychedelic, space rock, electronic music and even slices of reggae and etnic music. The name of Ozric Tentacles comes to mind quite often and sometimes you can notice some Hawkwind elements as well.

The stunning opening track starts off with some old fashioned keyboards that are setting the scene for broadcasting an announcement from an alien creature. I suppose it wasn't a bad idea to put the alien on the cover as this music breathes science fiction. This opening is reminiscent to Mike Oldfield's songs from a distant earth" and sounds astonishing. Their typical style commences to show itself on the second track. Here, the bands starts an Ozric like rhythm provided by an energetic guitar riff and rhythm section covered by a sound of a thousand sci-fi sounding keyboards. Not much melody can be spot but somehow it works out fine without. Nice cosmic interlude which includes beautiful melody motifs provided by the flute parts that also have a substantial contribution throughout the whole album. You can notice the prog leanings in the wonderful guitar parts of "Spiral flame". Funny how the keyboards from outer space manages to sound absolutely stunning even though it's not all that new. To create the special sound, quantum uses keyboard sounds which are dating back to the seventies and eighties of J.M. Jarre and Jan Hammer but it seems refreshing cause these are mixed with modern keyboard sounds. The title track makes a fine example of this. This up-tempo track is definitely one of the highlights not only for it's strong melodies of some great sounding parts but also for the a great variation between the very different sounding sections. "Wintershade" is illustrating the contrary, this is a melodic piece of soft cosmic music with drums on it. "Wais Dame Dilamp" is an eastern sounding track but later on the tempo's speeding up. Next track even shows some influences from house and jazz that nicely fits in the lush atmospheric sound. Last one is the oddest track of the bunch. You can spot some aboriginal elements here. Near the end "the dragon" sounds more and more like a horrible creature who eats just about anything but I suppose this funny track is rather intended as a practical joke.

What can I say about this album. The music is great, the production work couldn't be better ! Still can't believe what these young guys achieved. "Aguapanthusterra" is way too short. I would like to taste more than 50 minutes of this instrumental dish. I can play it at any time I want without being in a particular mood. It never seems to bore due to the fact that no soundscape is lasting too long and there's a good balance between the quiet and the more violent sections. Off course there's also the wonderful wall of sound which comes to the front every now and then. When it does you're getting short in ears to hear every single element. This kind of music is easily to get into but unlike some Ozric music it never gets really pompous. The album is definitely keyboard dominated but it's used in a spectacular, unpredictable way, sometimes fluid, sometimes spacey, sometimes rhythmical but always fascinating in it's combination with the other instruments. It should also be mentioned that the contribution of every instrument is important for the overall sound. This deserves world wide recognition !