07 March 2021

SOUNDS OF NEW SOMA – Trip (2021, LP/CD Tonzonen Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Tonzonen Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition

Format: CD, Album

Release Date: 16 April 2021

All loyal (or not) readers of TimeMaZine are for sure familiar with the avant-garde experimental German duo, Sounds Of New Soma, as we have “hosted” reviews of many of their album releases. I believe “Trip” is their 9^th release (since 2013) and the press release reads:

“Cosmic sound encounters of the third kind. Two music enthusiasts have immersed themselves deeply in a plethora of genres from the far side of the mainstream. They formed Sounds Of New Soma in 2013 in order to materialize their tonal vision of a cosmic voyage in the aftermath of a psychedelic trip. Trip is the new album by the electro/ avant-garde/ neo-krautrock duo Alexander Djelassi and Dirk Raupach. It comprises only one long track with the significant title Trip. Sounds Of New Soma is rightly associated with the so-called “Berlin School”, whose representatives include Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Manuel Göttsching. But Sounds Of New Soma are more, which is made clear once again on Trip. The band transports the genre into the modern age and experiments with sound structures again and again. For a Trip you take your time, let yourself fall into the music and enjoy the experience”…

So, “Trip” is a long composition divided into 2 parts, on each side of the LP. “Trip Side A” (22:53) starts acoustically improvisational with the ‘tuning of the guitar’ and some sporadic spacey ‘bubbles’, slowly the engine starts and the ‘Machines’ are taking the lead! An electronic Sound Experiment takes place, drawing influence from that magnificently damned “Phaedra” album from 1974… A dark and cold Sax is trying to bring chaos but the ‘Machines’ are Superior… “Trip Side B” (19:43) moves into a soft dark electronically drenched soundscape flirting with a thrilling ‘ambient’ way of New Age music that leaves enough Space for the Sax (to enter and do “things”), sporadically of course and pretty uninvited I must say, and I get the feeling that whole created scenery over here is inspired/influenced by Kraftwerk’s origins (Organisation era)… A cool Neo-Krauty Trip indeed!!! TimeLord Michalis