From:
Siggy
Zielinski @
11 of 15
As some friends and sympathizers of Spacerock's own
eclectic nature already know, Spirits Burning is a collective of musicians led
by US musicians Don Falcone and Albert Bouchard (formerly at Blue Öyster
Cult).
In the run-up to Spirits Burning's fourteenth album,
Falcone has contacted British science fiction and fantasy author Michael
Moorcock. The goal was to use the "Dancers" trilogy by Moorcock as a text
template for Spirits Burning. "An Alien Heat" is the name of the first part of
the "Dancers" trilogy by Moorcock. After a meeting and some sessions with
Moorcock, it was discovered that the collaboration worked well, so Moorcock was
allowed to contribute his lyrics and to compose some pieces. In addition,
Moorcock has been involved in vocals in most pieces, even though it is often
just the background vocals. (Too bad that the lyrics were not printed anywhere,
so that you can probably only guess the sung content of Moorcock).
In addition to Moorcock, Falcone and Bouchard, "An
Alien Heat" involved around 30 musicians, including Cyrille Verdeaux
(Clearlight) and members of Blue Öyster Cult, Hawkwind, Arthur Brown's Kingdom
Come, The Groundhogs and The Damned. Even after up to eight musicians with
different backgrounds were allowed to write on the pieces, the result sounds
pretty homogenous to me. In vocal technique, several singers are involved as
well, though most often the voice of Albert Bouchard, sometimes pressed and
sometimes reminiscent of Robert Wyatt, can be heard.
According to the self-description of Spirits Burning,
the music is output as a spacer rock. However, it is not always easy to classify
what is required stylistically. Some pieces seem to offer a fusion of
psychedelic rock, folk, and pop rock with a pinch of spacerock and postwave,
akin to Hawkwind's time with Robert Calvert (as heard in "Hothouse Flowers,"
"Doomed," and "In the Future," among others). In the pieces like "Dark Dominion"
and "To Steal a Space Traveler", you go one step further in the direction of
psychedelic experiments and add some weird sounds, as if Daevid Allen's spirit
was present.
"Geronimo" again has to offer psychedelic-folky style
pop, in which the chant is in constant dialogue with the melodic violin lines.
It seems very difficult to find traces of Spacerock here.
Featuring the charming female vocals of Ann Marie
Castellano, the "Soiree of Fire" seems to combine the trance of Spacerock with
the ease of Artpop and the mysterious mood of psychedelic folk. Colorful and
lively-looking psychedelic-spacy folk prog can also be heard in "Fall in Love"
and "Any particular Interest".
(If anyone needs it, there is also a bonus CD to the
full package that includes the instrumental versions of each piece, so you can
of course follow the detailed arrangements better and at the same time think
about whether this music is justified even without the vocals. Without singing,
sometimes even other stylistic assignments of the individual pieces could
result, which can happen with such a musical tightrope).
I find it very exciting to watch over the entire
length of the album, how creatively the pieces from the above-mentioned musical
puzzle pieces were put together, so that pigeonholing is made almost impossible
and at the same time new ways for the musical expeditions are opened.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
Spirits Burning is one of the most unique entities in the space rock galaxy. The group consists of one main member, Don Falcone, and many other participants from various bands and projects...
Healthy Music In Large Doses is the latest offering from the Spirits Burning space rock collective, this time featuring keyboardist Cyrille 'Clearlight' Verdeaux. Clearlight is a project of French son..
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