Astral Magic and Paul Roland- Light of the World (ASTRAL066)

This is the 2nd collaboration album between UK based Paul Roland (Acoustic guitar, vocals, keys) and Santtu (all other instruments) in Finland. It also features Jonathan Segel (guitar, violin, mandolin) and Anton Sailo on broken Kannel (?).  THe album features 12 tracks, two of which hae been released before in different versions (Mind Melt Machine and The Illustrated Man. 

Every Night I Journey to the Starts starts things off.  The vocal is very relaxed with a steady drum beat and dreamy synth layers and a bit of slide and acoustic guitar. Nice opener. I am not Here continues in a similar vein. I really dig 23rd Century track. Nice violin playing by Jonathan. Catchy vocal line and nice bass line. Interlude is next and goes into Light of the World. This features acoustic guitar and is a mellow spacey track, very melodic light singings. Nice wah guitar solo and an upbeat ending. When I get to Heaven is a long mostly instrumental track.  I woake as from a Dream has a great mysterious vibe to it but is really short, under 2mins. Mind Melt Machine, you probably already heard on the 10” or digital but this is a slightly different shorter version.  Davidsons Eyes has a bit of a Syd Barrett -Pink Floyd like vibe. The Illustrated Man, has also been published before. The album ends with Dark Angel of Mine.  My wife really loves this album.. so check it out.. Say Mrs Space…

http://astralmagic.bandcamp.com 

http://paul-roland.bandcamp.com