Field Recordings Archive Project

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Kind Words from Terrascope!

"Here come another cassette for your delight, this one mixing Folk with Kraut with lovely results as Die Geister Beschworen blend brass, strings and quite possibly the kitchen sink on “Music Feeds Stars” one of those albums that makes you feel good to be alive with the flute/guitar sweetness of “Ilya (and Oliver) and “On My Moneth's Mind” its stranger brass led follow up both strongly reminding me of Gorky's with latter sounding like dance music for drunken 1930's ghouls, all woozy trumpets and theremin. Having invited us in with two short tracks the band get serious on the 12 minute “Avenue of the Giants” a magnificent, sprawling epic that has beautiful acoustic guitar, female vocals and a sense of grandeur that is tempered by a languid first half, the piece suddenly bursting into life at the eight minute mark to become the full-on folk-rock freakout you hoped it would, guitar and sax trading licks over the a solid and slightly frantic rhythm before the track fades again into its languid state to undulate beautifully until it dissolves. Like some arcane primitive ritual, “Completed Arch of the Zodiacal Light” manages to incorporate the didgeridoo in a way that doesn't make you think of dreadlocks and dogs on string, whilst “manimekhala” is a wall of droning noise that slowly morphs into a more ambient piece with field recording and chiming bells before the piece rises again with chanted vocals and an inner tension. To end, “Countershine” is full of light, a sweet blend of guitar, strings and vocals with a spoken word part at the end complete with the sound of birdsong that leads us out perfectly..."
Ptolemaic Terrascope