SLEEPING PANDORA

Sleeping Pandora is the musical name since 2017 of Mathias Rosmann having played in Cosmic Fall; space rock, colorful music to escape, meditate, musical fog to combat gloom; rhythmic and synthesized electronic atmosphere for his 11th album.

'Mole' entry with melodic reverb, flowing guitar, on Ozric Tentacles from afar; up close, a slow spatial variation with guitar and vibrant synths. 'Missed Opportunity' a tune reminiscent at times of the progressive research of Anders Buaas in a softer way, in short a melodic progression which can be listened to without restraint, without waves. 'Hypnotic Chaotic' more hypnotic than the others, leading to the sacred musical plains from which there is no return; always this atypical tune that rides a wave full of notes; the second half resumes the syncopated effect, eternally vibrating to plunge into a dimensionless space. 'Stumbleland' reverberant and soaring track; sampled notes and a guitar arpeggio embedded on top that never ends; a musical journey meant to lead to relaxation, sleep, or both; the sound seems to stop and start again, you see the waves doing the same work; soulful atmosphere with a hypnotic groove, a bewitching bass and metronomic drums monopolizing the anvils. 'Limitless' returns to the psyche-song of which Ozric Tentacles and Quantum Fantay are precursors; a southern slide guitar which shines on a long spatial mantra, the base recalling the sounds of Tangerine Dream, in short soaring from home. Very different 'Signal' since the habit of the ears finds an important mini change; similar since the atmosphere is always colorful, the resulting sounds always invite you to leave; Mathias still uses his guitar for a final journey into musical limbo, without hallucinogenic substances, these being replaced by his own. Sleeping Pandora continues its little path of sending the listener into space; in case of missing the last car, you have the choice to take a mantra and ramble on it, to hover in the enigmatic atmosphere which is its own; psyche music for contemplation, soothing, relaxing what else!

SLEEPING PANDORA is a project established by Berlin based guitarist Mathias Rosmann. Since some years now he's exclusively operating on solo paths. Very productive, as 'Signs In The Sky' represents the fifth studio album so far. A significant trademark is the somewhat hypnotic chillout mood in general, a perfect scope for his typical echo respectively reverb guitar performance he's known for. This, with good reason, includes several Kosmische Musik reminiscences, akin to the likes of Günter Schickert, Manuel Göttsching, or Achim Reichel if you will. On a side note, while trying to express melancholy, also foresight maybe, kitschy or not, the album cover picture may divide the listeners. Anyhow, Rosman succeeds in providing a pleasant experience in general, that counts. Of course you don't have to expect compositions with many twists and turns embedded.

A more repetitive style often enough is running into danger, I mean to slip into boring purposelessness somehow. For the sake of variety he's diving into several music styles and technics on this occasion, be it a TripHop, House or Dub oriented groove, managed by skilfully programmed bass and drums. Or a more looping space and ambient flow in many variants. And he's also incorporating synths and piano here and there. The extraordinaire cosmic guitar playing dominates it all, that's for sure. Exemplarily I would like to mention Floating High which excellently combines multiple guitar styles, for example soaring space and singer/songwriter (semi-)acoustic. In the first instance this is dedicated to some relaxed and concentrated moments, when sitting alone, laid back on a sofa or in a comfortable chair, with a glass of wine at hand maybe. Though in the same way suitable as a background facility, when having a meeting with friends in a bar, while debating about essential themes concerning mankind's future or so.

Sleeping Pandora is the name of the project of multi instrumentalist Mathias Rosmann, who is the sole contributor to this Psychedelic/Space Rock band. The project was founded in Berlin in 2017 and 'Yellow Sphere', released in early 2019 is the fourth album from this project. There are only 3 tracks on this album, but they are quite long and meditative tracks.

The album starts with the 22 minute trance and psychedelic epic 'Santenna'. The jam comes from a few guitars which consists of a lot of echoing and delayed layers over a repeating background of a riff and some percussion. After 6 minutes, the percussion drops out leaving just the chiming and echoing guitars. A new subdued rhythm line comes in a bit later, and a few minutes after that, drums suddenly come to the foreground from out of the haze to add to the continuing psychedelic groove and improvisations. After 15 minutes, the drums stop and the guitar layers continue alone. Drums come back at 17 minutes with percussive guitar notes and effects. Though it is long without much in the way of dynamic or tempo change, it is still a nice bit of psychedelia that is good for a long meditation and pleasant effects. It is far too long for just listening to however.

'Cold Fever' is about half of the size as the last track at 12 minutes. After the long psychedelic track, it is surprising to hear something more upbeat like this. The guitar line is more melodic that the last meandering track and there is quite a bit of synth and electronic patterns going on in the background, almost giving it an electronic edge. But the guitar has the main spotlight doing the improv. Being less psychedelic, this one is more like Space Rock with a much more interesting and dynamic background that moves through a changing chord pattern that repeats. The drums drop out around the 8 minute mark but synths and guitar continue. After 10 minutes, the beat comes back.

Finally, 'Frozen' (nothing to do with the Disney movie) ends the album with an 11 minute track. Subdued synths and percussion start a processed looped sequence while an acoustic / electric guitar improvises over it all. Around the 5 minute mark, there is a strange, looped and vocalized effect that comes in for a little while. While the synths anchor psychedelic effects from the guitar. Around 9 minutes, the guitars intensify a little, but it all stays quite trance-like.

This album is a good meditation style psychedelic album with long improvised tracks played against mostly looped backgrounds. The tracks meander on without much change in rhythm and basic sound. As far as listening to them for the sake of listening, they can be hard to sit through and work best as background music, or 'free floating'. The music isn't really dark, but there isn't much melodically that goes on here. The upbeat 2nd track is a nice change, but again, it is long without much change, like the other tracks. The music is good, but not very interesting for a lot of listenings.

Awesome Space/Psychedelic music from Cosmic Fall member Mathias Rosmann. Great sonic textures, song constructions, and instrumental performances throughout. I haven't heard guitar-led psychedelic music this good in a long time.

1. "Shine" (10:52) powerful, diverse, richly layered, with very emotional guitar play. By far the best song on the album. (10/10)

2. "'berschall" (12:18) a more slowed down though continuous soundscape and flow from the previous song. The guitar here is far more bluesy, the bass line a little monotonous. At the end of the sixth minute a kind of Berlin School sequence enters bringing a cool new feel and speed. The heavily-echoed guitar starts getting cooler. At the eight-minute mark some instrumental sounds drop out, creating a more spacious backdrop over which keyboard- synth sequence and computer cymbal play support the screams of the echoed electric guitar. (8/10)

3. "Danube Wave" (11:12) opens with synth wash background, fast-throbbing single-note bass and "hi-hat" lines with MIKE OLDFIELD "Incantations"-like "glass" vibes playing over the top. Wah-ed electric guitar lead supplants the vibes in the second minute as "drum" support increases. At the three minute mark the glass vibes rejoin for a bit, then we're back to electric guitar soloing over the synthesized rhythm section. I must admit that the guitar lead is doing nothing for me; I'm much more interested in the movements in the synthetic background (synth washes, vibes, bass, drums). The guitar begins playing with more percussive echo effects in the sixth and seventh minutes while background drops out. At 7:00 we return to drum-base while guitar resumes soloing, now with that heavy echo interplaying with the wah. The solo actually gains traction and an enjoyable melody line while reminding me of the Randy Bachman solo in "Blue Collar." Nice. (8.5/10)

4. "Cascades" (12:07) a gentle prog electronic foundation opens this song before heavily-effected electric guitar steps in to take on the lead. Very engaging, hypnotic musical base. Things quiet down in the sixth minute so that smooth industrial synth sounds can have a turn while floaty electric piano plays gently from behind the wings (L). Nice section. When the soundscape begins to refill, it is with an insidious force led by guitar and later joined by bass and drums. Guitar soloing ventures into lower octaves in the tenth minute as spacey foundation trudges along. Long, interesting, echo-y two minute deconstruction and "fade out." (9/10)

5. "Going Back" (9:12) opens with a slow but constant two-chord keyboard progression before twangy-electric guitar lead and synth effects join in. The guitar is fairly bare though heavily echoed (as usual) and, shortly, wah pedaled. Those first three minutes were surprisingly boring. A shift into a higher octave refreshes but ultimately fails to save the first half of this song from the realm of "future skip overs." Some subtle sound additions and shifts in the fifth and sixth minutes help, and then when the guitar disappears for a while the syth work and drum sounds are afforded more attention. Guitar returns at 7:00, played much more slowly, each single- or dual-note gaining independent attention. In the end, this is a forgettable song. (7/10)

6. "Space Lane" (11:16) opens with quite familiar Berlin School sounds and constructs before near-Euro-disco bass line and standard drum lines support the searing electric guitar soloing. The soundscape thins in the fifth minute as the bass drops out, isolating the guitar more, but it's not till the 5:20 mark that the guitar really begins to bring it in terms of intensity and emotion. And, at nearly the same time, the rest of the original Euro-disco sounds return, both amplifying and diminishing the guitar's possible effect. Still, we're learning that Mathais' real strength is in his searing, emotional guitar play. Another break from bass and drums at the 8-minute mark, but then the dance floors are made happy again less than 30 seconds later. Nice guitar work/riffs in the final 90 seconds. (9/10)

7. "Beach" (11:27) opens with a striking New Age feel to it--even the sound and style of play used for the lead guitar bespeaks "New Age." A littel more house oriented in the middle section, but I have to admit that by this point in the album I'm getting a little tired of the "Blue Collar" guitar sound. A few nice dynamic shifts disrupt the tedium and give the listener breathing space, a chance for renewed perspective, but ultimately this song needs something more. (8.5/10)

Four stars; a nice contribution to the prog electronic/space music style and an excellent addition to any prog rocker's music collection.