ASTRAL MAGIC – Sacred Mysteries (2023, CD Astral Magic Music)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Astral Magic Music

Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition, Digipack (designed by Andy Woodwright based on three hand-drawn art pieces by Eetu Pellonpää), 100 copies

Release Date: 8 Sep 2023

Astral Magic which is the personal Space-Ship of Santtu Laakso (DJ Astro), is back with another release! It seems that Santtu is a super workaholic dude/musician, and I assume that he is going through a moon of great unbelievable inspiration, because how else can you describe someone that from January 2023 to September of 2023 – meaning in just 9 months – he released 11 (!!!) new albums! Not one, not two, not five… Eleven! Eleven albums filled with Santtu’s favorite style of music, SPACE ROCK! All music and lyrics of course are by Santtu, but most of the time a few guest musicians are helping him to accomplish his mission… Astral Magic’s new album is called “Sacred Mysteries” and the musicians that are taking part in it – under The Mystics moniker – are Anton Barbeau on guitar and Taavi Heikkilä on saxophone!

“Sacred Mysteries” is a Space Trip that contains 9 tracks (you may call them Trips, Stops, or Destinations). The Trip begins with “Gobekli Tepe”, an up-tempo Space-a-delicious tune, heavily synthesized with tons of Spacey Effects (of course) resulting in some glorious Uplifting New Age Space Instro music! The following tune “Puma Punku” is a little darker but uses the same Heavy Space motive, with lyrics this time, this is Space-Rock with a pinch of Hawkwind, becoming adventurously darker and heavier… “Mystics From Outer Space” is a powerful New Space Age Rock track with a kind of futuristic Space aura… The deeply Spacey-effected “The Other World” is a strange “Trip” that acts like a studio experiment, quite futuristic though… “Blow Your Mind” acts like a theme from a 60s sci-fi B-movie but is rapidly transformed into a dynamic Hawkwind-ized Space Rocker! “Watchers” is a quite different track/stop, it sounds like a summer Space-Surfing melodic hit! “Transmission Omicron” is another deeply Spacey-effected track, numerous spacey effects, sounds like a synth loop that tries to find a way to explode in the universe, another cool studio experiment! Two more stops, two more Trips, for the album to finish, and these last 2 “destinations” are my top 2 favorites of the album. “Phases” is a rhythmic and addictive Hawkwind-ized tune that Astral-Magically acrobats between fantasy and reality while “Close Encounter” is a slower piece, without losing its “power” or “space-ness”, lots of shimmering spacey-bubbles at the back, emerging a feel of melancholy though, but acting like a lost film score to a sci-fi movie written by the mighty Vangelis, awesome! So, Space is the Place! Secure a Trip to the Stars… Feed your head with some Intergalactic Astral Magic… TimeLord Michalis

Tracklist