Review Summary: Kosmische space-folk for the kid in all of us.
For the best examples of space ambient music, one should probably start chronologically with the likes of Klaus Schulze’s
Irrlicht, or Michael Stearns’
Planetary Unfoldings. Both of these essential works were special not in how they depicted galactic events, but in how they portrayed the psyche in terms of the cosmos. Space ambient music has largely devolved into simply mimicking the sentiments of space exploration, or adding cosmic synths to dark ambient. Vysoké Čelo’s music both honours its forefathers, with rich instrumentation and a tinge of kosmische, and pushes forward in terms of sound and introspection.
Űrutazás views space as rich and wondrous, but illustrates this amidst flurries of memories and refracting points of view. At times, the lens seems to include an entire galaxy; but, soon after, it hones in on a lone child laying in the grass. One suspects that
Űrutazás could be the story of someone born amidst Earth’s population’s mass relocation to a different planet in a far-off solar system.
It’s impressive how much Vysoké Čelo accomplishes in so little time.
Űrutazás feels like a double album cleverly compressed into one EP. In opener “Erdő II” we sense an exodus moving on thin ice. Elsewhere, on “Ktoś zgasił Słońce”, we get an instrumental interlude that could fit on an American Football album. The gentle, untainted guitar becomes lightly weighed down with synths, static, piano, and martial drumming, and it all resembles an adolescent having his or her concerns trivialized by events of greater breadth. Sonically, there is a lot happening, and the density has minor downsides, namely the reduced mental-reflective capacity; the protagonist doesn’t spend enough time ruminating and establishing the psychological elements, and it’s easy to be more impressed with the instrumentation than the sentimentality. “Lot na Księżyc” has a catchy, percussive bass line, engaging synth melodies, and organic rhythms. And, even if you ignore any narrative on “Ktoś zgasił Słońce”, there is plenty to enjoy at face value: the climax of xylophones, fallings stars, piano meandering, and musique concrete, narrated by writer Stanisław Lem’s excerpts. Conceptually, it’s folk music rooted in traditions and interactions that haven’t happened yet. It both foreshadows and reflects on a life removed from the pangs of normal, Earthly life.
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