THE JOURNEY

As surely as day follows night, January 1st brings with it a new Soniq Theater album, and 2017 is no exception, with this Alfred's seventeenth release under that name. This one is back to the old traditional style of artwork as well, back when everything was being released on CD-R, but now he uses Bandcamp so in many ways the artwork is even less important. There are a few vocals on here, but for the most part it is Alfred and his keyboards, with a mix of some up-tempo numbers and the more New Age style with which is he is most commonly associated. This is a "classic" Soniq Theater album, and is quite safe in that it isn't doing anything dramatically different to what he has done before, but if you enjoy that then you will most definitely be interested in this one as well. One of my few complaints is that I do wish that "Short Trip To Space" could have been extended, as the keyboard sounds being used and the melodic feel of this demands much more than the amount of time it was allocated, and it would be interesting to hear a full album going down that path. As always, it is possible to hear the album in full (and even download them at no cost), so why not give Soniq Theater a try

German project SONIQ THEATER is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Alfred Mueller, a venture that started shortly after his former band Rachel's Birthday seems to have disbanded. A total of 19 albums have been released under the Soniq Theater moniker since then. "The Journey" dates back to 2017, and is the seventeenth of these. As with all other albums by this artist, it is a self-released one.

The Soniq Theater albums have a tendency to be something of a roller-coaster experience, with high peaks and deep valleys in terms of how interesting the individual compositions are. Most are well made in terms of melodies, harmonies, moods and atmospheres, while the end result can be anything from excellent to good to lacking and occasionally abysmal. Much depending on what type of sounds that are used and how well they fit the totality, and especially the quality of the emulated instruments used. But if an uneven album experience can be tolerated, and the thought of exploring an artist that blends symphonic progressive rock and progressive electronic music elements inside a framework of ambient music, this is an album that merits a check.