16 September 2023

THE SUN OR THE MOON – Andromeda (2023, LP/CD Tonzonen Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Tonzonen Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Blue Vinyl, Gatefold Sleeve (includes download code), 300 copies

Format: CD, Album, Digipack

Release Date: 16 June 2023

The Sun or the Moon is a powerfully creative new Psych-Kraut-Rock-Space lounge German group that introduced themselves in 2021 with their “Cosmic” debut album released through Tonzonen Records. The band consists of Frank Incense (Gesang, Bass, Gitarre, Synthesizer), Markus Weber (Gitarre), Susanne Schneider (Klavier and Keyboards), and Niclas Ciriacy (Schlagzeug and Percussion), and their sophomore album is entitled “Andromeda” (also through Tonzonen Records).

Let’s have a look at the label’s informative press release:

“The Sun or the Moon was founded in the summer of 2019 in Mainz (GER) by four adventurous and creative musicians to realize their sound inspired by the Kraut and Psychedelic Rock of the 70s. After the quartet had already released some songs in digital form on popular streaming

platforms, the debut album “Cosmic” was released in September 2021 on Tonzonen Records as a Double LP, CD, and digital release.

Over an electronic foundation of repetitive beats and electronically generated soundscapes, the band develops its hypnotic sound, which is mostly located somewhere between monotonous Kraut, relaxed Psychedelic Ambient, and sprawling Acid and Prog Rock.

With their second album “Andromeda”, which will be released on June 16, 2023, also on Tonzonen Records as vinyl, CD, and in digital form, the four musicians open the next chapter of their chilling journey through time and space. The recording sessions and mixing of the new songs took a considerable amount of time due to the special and detailed ideas of the musicians, who also acted as producers, and the large number of guest musicians invited to the sessions (including a string quartet). The musicians again used a variety of sources of inspiration that they

incorporated into the production process: 60s and 70s psychedelic bands, art and prog rock acts (Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree), Krautrock (CAN, Amon Duul), electronic pioneers (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream), trip-hop (Massive Attack, Portishead) as well as world music, jazz, new wave, and post-punk. The special thing about The Sun Or The Moon here is that the four musicians manage in a relaxed way to merge their diverse influences into a homogeneous whole”…

“Andromeda” contains 6 tracks in total, 3 on each side of the album and it kicks off with the Best-track-of-the-album (personal opinion) called “Operation Mindfuck”, it is simply a 10:03min track that its title explains literally what the hell is going on in here, a totally take-no-prisoners track! Electronically flavored, trippy, and spacey (of course), with a relaxing beat and ambient-like atmos, it becomes a hypnotic mind-blowing 10-minute chilling sojourn to the Spiral Galaxy of Andromeda! The next one is called “Psychedelik Kosmonaut”, it is deeply spacey-effected, including sample voices, spacey bubbles, and a unique Cosmic-Psych danceable Beat, acts like a mixture of Rammstein and Porcupine Tree with a touch of early 80s Kraftwerk! “Planet” uses/explores a more dreamy environment, still SPACEY of course, with a magical blend of piano and flute sounds, and poppy vocals sooner to be transformed into an electronically trippy soundscape emerging an intense late 70s poppy/jazzy Tangerine Dream feel… Side “B” opens with “Andromedan Speed Freaks”, a kind of trippy start with synthesized spacey effects, telling the story of this Andromedan guy that he met in the club… A spacey scenery that auto-transforms becoming trippy, heavy, heavier, trippier, weirder, and creepier… “The Art Of Microdosing” is a 10:43 psychedelically spacey Trip, ambient flirting while the spacey/jazz Sax sound along with the vocals act like a mind-expanding Space-Electric-Mass… Wow… “Into The Smithereens” is another personal highlight of the album, it starts under a dreamy serene environment with a more “earthly” approach and a strong reminiscent feel, quite cinematic and at-least-to-my-ears it is somehow super Pink Floyd influenced! And when the blending between piano and guitar starts then we’re leading into a clearly Porcupine Tree soundscape, that cool! The CD version of “Andromeda” contains 2 more bonus tracks, “Surfin’ Around Saturn” is an electronically flavored and spacey-effected slow proggy neo-space anthem with a weird and kind of trip-hop touch, and “40 Days”, an even slow tune, torturously slow I have to say, acting like a Space-Electronic ballad with a cinematic futuristic edge… So, in conclusion, “Andromeda” is one of these Space Albums (and there aren’t many out there) that Space Rock couldn’t have sounded more Cosmically intellectual or sophisticated, a must! TimeLord Michalis