Release Date: 2007

Track Listing
1)  Sand and Flames
2)  Sayat Nova
3)  The Fire In My Head
4)  Silver Morning Branches
5)  Second Transition
6)  Valley Of The Rocks
7)  Underwater Journey
8)  Return From Byzantium
9)  The Smoking Furnace
10)  Dusk Cloud

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Member: avestin (Profile) (All Album Reviews by avestin)
Date: 1/29/2008
Format: CD (Album)

Those woods have a spellbinding voice

Rick Tomlinson is responsible for this project and has so far released several CD-r’s and EP’s under this moniker. This is probably the first proper full-length release; and a fantastic one at that.

What a trip! Literally. You have much to absorb here; from folk through psychedelic parts to krautrock inspired and freakout bits to eastern influenced sounds. Tomlinson music is as accessible as it is beautiful, haunting and inspiring. Fantastic “carving” with his guitar (and other instruments like a sitar) an eastern sounding mystical, ethereal path, Tomlinson knows how to blend beauty with psychedelic elements in a rather simplistic yet effective way. The sense of aesthetics is not a miss here. It’s all woven together perfectly, giving the impression of a continuous musical story line, a journey of sorts. With the instruments, the music goes from calm and pensive to more agitated waters of fast and loud wall of acoustic sound and on to fantastic “freakout” electric psychedelic parts, again tainted with an oriental sound. It is not only the instrumental parts, but also the spellbinding vocalizations (either sung or semi- spoken) that have this effect on me; they fit superbly with the music. It is so thrilling and captivating I find myself closing my eyes and letting it carry me away each time I listen to it. This is music you just feel you want to abandon everything behind and let it carry you away with it. It tucks you in, wrapping you with warm musical blankets (“Sand and Glames”); waking you up with an energy filling wakeup call (“Second Transition”); caresses you gently (“Silver Morning Branches”) and takes you on a ride (“Satai Nova”). What more can I ask from an album? No point in going on, if you haven’t decided that you want to listen to this by now, then there’s not much more I can say.

One of the best albums from 2007 I heard and quickly rising to be an all-time favorite. If oriental-fused krautrock, psychedelic “freakout” and acid-folk is your “thing”, then I can’t recommend this enough. A Turkish delight.





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