Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Sounds of a new Soma- La Grande Bellezza (Tonzonen Records TON023)

SOANS album from last year was one of my favorites so I was very much looking forward to this new record.  The group has expanded a bit with more instrumentation, with the biggest difference being drums on a number of tracks. The album features 11 tracks spread over 4 sides of vinyl.  Bunderesgartenschau 71 starts things off in a spacey way with some light guitar, spaced out synth loops and a slow drum build. A nice melody is played on the guitar as well but he never really takes off. Synths are really floating on this track.  Der Grüne Pilz is a short percussion and spoken word 3min track that leads into the 10min Einheit des Lichtes. It starts with some strange vocals like sounds and a slow building synth sequence that slowly changes over time.  No drums or guitar on this track. Side B starts off with Garten des Lichtes.  It is very drony, slow pretty dark and trippy at times to start and then the intensity slowly builds up. Das weiBe Rauschen has some more dynamics and bells and a highly effected voice at one point and then a deep bass reverberation starts to take over the soundscape. Later a nice melodic melody is played on a keyboard. A very cool trip ending a bit like Welcome to the Machine with a door opening and this leads into the track Spandau, which brings back the drums and guitar. Andreas adds some saxophone to give this track a totally different vibe. You can hear cars driving by and people walking on the street. Interesting. Side C starts with Wahn (See the video below). IT has a repeated synth sequence and different sounds, effects, percussion  and occasional voices coming in from all angles, to make you uneasy, never confortable. Schwurbel is very dreamy. Schönheit again features some guitar along with the synths. Side D features 2 tracks starting with Wurmloch…a long track with a slow build with drums. Very cool and totally hypnotic. Duftnote ends the trip… Hope you got some new somas along the way!

The double vinyl is beautiful and features a 12 page booklet with some really cool pictures as well as a download card. A great package. Sorry for the late review, Dirk.


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