12 January 2024

ASTRAL SON – Mythos (2023, LP Headspin Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Headspin Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl, 180 gram, 100 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Clear Green Vinyl, 180 gram, 200 copies

Release Date: 14 Oct 2023

Astral Son is a side-project of Leonardo Wijma – a musician and painter in Groningen, The Netherlands, creating and experimenting with psychedelic/space rock music. Leonardo Wijma also released several albums under the name Leonardo or Leonardo Soundweaver. Under the Astral Son moniker, he released “Gurumaya” (2013, Headspin Records), “Silver Moon” (2015, Headspin Records), “Mind’s Eye” (check review) (2016, Sulatron Records), “Wonderful Beyond” (check review) (2018, Headspin Records). Astral Son’s 5th album was released on 14 October 2023 through Headspin Records and it’s called “Mythos”. To get an idea of what it is all about, his Bandcamp page states:

“After a five-year hiatus, solo artist Astral Son returns with the neo-psychedelic treasure trove, Mythos. Eight surrealistic sound-paintings, sprinkled with kraut, acid-folk, and electronic flavours. Mythos is a free-flowing, blooming, ever-expanding, multi-layered listening experience. Tapping into the mysterious sounds of the late sixties and early seventies, each song is a world of its own, reaching out for far regions of the mind, dissolving time and space”…

“Mythos” is composed, performed, and produced by Astral Son. All vocals and instruments by Astral Son (organs, Moog synthesizer, electric guitar, bass, acoustic guitar, Indian harmonium, drum programming, tabla, tingsha, cymbals, cowbell and other sounds). “Mythos” consists of 8 tracks, equally divided into the 2 sides of the LP album. The opener “Nothing Remains” starts in a magical, mystical, and kind of hallucinogenic way, with a remarkable Krauty beat, numerous spacey effects but the most significant ingredient here is the HUGE ghost of early Pink Floyd, while the final result is dressed with a tremendous Psych-a-Creepy guitar sound. And if you try to set your mind free for a while, then instantly you’ve been tele-transported into the magnificent atmosphere of Floyd’s “Live In Pompeii”! A deeply Psychedelic and super Spacey track! The second track, “Fishes”, starts and it seems… er… sounds… like it’s time to welcome Syd… An amazing late 60s Psych atmos, deeply Pink Floyd inspired (and I’m referring to the first 2 Floyd albums), this is an excellent example of some modern Neo-Psychedelia, totally British influenced! Of course the vocals are bringing Syd to mind… Towards the end, Astral Son launched the track into SPACE! “On A Cloud” is a slow piece of Psych, kind of nostalgic, definitely trippy, all the necessary Space Rock doses are present of course, and probably by now we have stepped into an early 70s Space void with a dark n’ cold n’ creepy n’ deeply frozen spacey ending… Now, it’s time to start flirting with some late 60s Beatlesque Psychedelia with “River Flow”, Leonardo creates an astonishing unbelievable Psych-Space soundscape with a psychedelically flavored mind-blowing atmosphere, it gives you the feel that you’re in the middle of “Echoes” during the Pompeii Live, Brilliant! Wow, though it started as Beatles-inspired track it transformed into a Floyd-deeply-inspired anthem, excellent! Side ‘B’ opens with “Wall Of Illusion”, this is SPACE ROCK at its Best! A little krauty flirting, a little Prog flirting, with a cinematic feel, you can easily be disillusioned if you just close your eyes for a sec or two… This is remarkable 70s inspired Space-a-Delia! The next one, “Hazy Shades”, rhythmically speaking, is a strange track, abnormal, different, starting as a blurry kind of rock balladesque tune, becoming a bit proggy, entering a Space stratosphere, and reaching high levels of obscurity… Cool! “Reality” is a Space-Psych tune, slow, trippy n’ creepy, with a camouflaged Beatlesque atmosphere, kind of futuristic, drenched into melancholy… Eventually, the album comes to an end with “The Poet”, another “weird” tune – I love weird tunes – kind of spacey with lots of mid-70s Floyd references, a spacey ballad… and I can’t think of a better epilogue for this Epos! Mind-Blowing from the very start to the very end! Come fly with “Mythos”, the journey would be absolutely Trippy! TimeLord Michalis