29 September 2021

MAAT LANDER – Elements: Air (2021, LP/Cassette Clostridium Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Clostridium Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, High-quality 180gr gold vinyl with puzzles and 16 pages A5 booklet, 100 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, High-quality 180gr black vinyl with 16 pages A5 booklet, 100 copies

Format: Album, High-bias chrome and Ferro tape cassette, Limited Edition, 50 copies

Release Date: 1 Aug 2021

Maat Lander is a Russian “Space Vehicle” consisting of just 3 musicians. It’s Ilya Lipkin on electric, acoustic guitars (from The Re-Stoned), and Arkadiy Fedotov on bass, synth, effects, flute, and Ivan Fedotov on drums, drum machines, wave drum (both from Vespero). Their 7^th album (including their 2 Split LPs) is called “Elements: Air” and as the band states: “… with our new release ‘Elements: Air’, we open a series of albums dedicated to the elements that everything is made up of. They will be united by a common character — our hero Maat Lander. In the books that will be attached to the releases, that will accompany the albums you can learn his amazing story from the beginning. So let the journey through the Maat Lander galaxy continue!”… The concept album consists of 6 tracks and it starts with “Mercury”, aggressive Space Rock by the very first second, Heavy adventurous guitar riffs under an even more Heavy Spacey environment. On “Maat’s First Alchemical Experiment (Chapter #1)” all the Heavy elements have gone away, this is Modern Aged Space Rock, improvisational and electric guitar based with tons of Acid Psychness that is released to the atmosphere… “Aether” is electrified improvised Space Rock with an ambient touch, shimmering and quite trippy. “Geocentric Model” is a slower tune, still Spacey environment, beautiful serene folk-a-like soundscapes emerging an intense Bluesy feeling… “Soul Of Cosmos” is my personal highlight in here, under a Kozmique synthesized Proggy landscape the trio unfolds a futuristic Spacey-effected musical motive, becoming trippy and giving you the feel of floating in Space, the whole thing acts like a colorful improvisational experiment in Space, blending together elements from Space, Psych-Funk, and early 70s Space-Rock, transforming into a global Acid-Space anthem leading body and mind to a vey slow state of trance… The album eventually closes with “Sylph’s Breath”, a very different tune with an acoustic start and full of melodic vibes, slowly diving into the Infinite Space, there’s a remarkable Psych-a-something atmos, becoming an instrumental balladesque kind of thing, and feels like early 70s Pink Floyd meet with the Tangerine Dream guys… Psychedelically trippy! TimeLord Michalis