15 January 2024

SENDELICA – Man, Myth & Magic (2023, 2LP Fruits de Mer Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Fruits de Mer Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Clear Vinyl, Die-cut sleeve (Includes a poster and comes with printed inner sleeves), 250 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Colored Vinyl, Die-cut sleeve (Includes a poster and comes with printed inner sleeves), 250 copies

Release Date: 9 Dec 2023

Of course, Sendelica, by now, does not need any further introduction, right? Their latest album was released December 15, 2023, through Fruits de Mer Records, on a phantasmagoric limited edition double vinyl LP, and here’s what the band has to say about it (Bandcamp):

“Man, Myth & Magic is the third installment of a quartet of albums examining Man’s relationship with religion, magic, myths, himself, and the planet he inhabits.

The series started with ‘And Man Created God’ which looked at man’s relationship with religion, followed by ‘One Man’s Man’ which examined the history of Homo Sapiens, where did we come from, and more importantly where are we headed?.

‘Man, Myth & Magic’ explores Mans Myths & Magic, when magic become science, when exactly do these become realities, and are these myths based on factual events and somehow distorted over the centuries?”…

The usual suspects that took part in this album are Pete Bingham (guitars, bass, bass synth, mellotron guitar, field recordings), Colin Consterdine (drums, sonics, electronics), Glenda Pescado (bass), Lee Relfe (sax), and special guest Mika Laakso (moog, synths, keyboards).

“Man, Myth & Magic” consists of 4 sidelong tracks/compositions, placed on each one of 4 sides of this double LP album. “Wheel Of Fortune” is an electronically flavored track, deeply synth based, quite proggy while the “SPACE element” is diffusible, all over the place/soundscape, this is a huge FUTURISTIC Neo-Space Rock tune that not only flirts with a space-new-age musical theme but also with an electronic ambient avant-garde one… Sax’s presence is subtle, and the track is becoming a bit Heavy, expanding the narrow boundaries of Prog… “Neptune (The Hanged Man)” starts in a dreamy serene and kind of “earthly” way, ambient-flirting and acoustically flavored, slowly it transforms into a tremendous modern proggy krauty track, becoming spacey and shamelessly flirting with the avant-garde side of Prog… “Magician Dawn” uses the same serene ambient-proggy scenery, but with a touch of experimental feel, experimenting with various sounds produced by synths (or whatever), slowly the abstract neo-futuristic background becomes more spacey in a rather Heavy way, a deeply improvisational cool anthem… The last one is called “Tower Of Chaos”, experimental, improvised, avant-garde-ish, blending ambient, prog, space, and new age music… Sendelica delivered another Prog-Spacey Ornament, with equal amounts of experimentation and improvisation, and this is exactly the fact that makes them, UNIQUE! Needless to say that “Man, Myth & Magic” made the list with my personal TOP albums of 2023 (check the list here). TimeLord Michalis