SOUNDS OF NEW SOMA – The Story Of Sam Buckett (2025, LP Tonzonen Records) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Tonzonen Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Orange Yellow Red Black Vinyl (including poster), 300 copies

Release Date: 14 Feb 2025

Our beloved experimental-ambient-electronic-Krautrock duo of Alex and Dirk is back with a wonderful and promising concept album, telling the interesting story of US scientist, Sam Buckett. Here’s what is all about:

“With SOUNDS OF NEW SOMA we experience Krautrock in a form that is both familiar and completely new. On the new album, the duo takes us on the indefinite journey of scientist Sam Buckett into the infinite expanses of the cosmos, both outer and inner.

The album tells the story of Sam Buckett, a US scientist who was already researching the possibility of manned space travel in the 1920s. He presented his research findings several times to high-ranking government officials, who dismissed them as irrational. In the end, Sam Buckett was ignored by the government and ridiculed by his colleagues.

Nevertheless, he continued his research in a secret laboratory in Rhode Island. A few confidants helped him with his research. Over the years, the small team developed various methods for possible manned space travel and eventually set about building a spaceship called Quasar.

With ectoplasm on board as food and an iron will to discover new galaxies, his trail was lost after the successful launch in March 1929.

His few loyal colleagues kept silent about the research and took the secret of Sam Buckett to their graves.

Sam Buckett was forgotten, and nobody living on earth knows his story. It remained secret and closed, and no one learnt of his research and what became of him.

SOUNDS OF NEW SOMA transcend genre boundaries with THE STORY OF SAM BUCKETT: their music is a homage to the pioneers of Krautrock, such as Neu!, Can, and Tangerine Dream, and at the same time a glimpse into the future of the genre. In their sonic alchemy, influences from psychedelic, ambient, and space rock merge into a unique sound that penetrates deep into the senses and creates an almost trance-like atmosphere.

The duo are masters at taking the listener on a journey – sometimes meditative and introspective, sometimes ecstatic and escalating. The music of Sounds of New Soma is an experience, a constantly changing flow that makes every moment appear in a different light.

For all those who are ready to embark on a sonic adventure, the duo offers the perfect soundtrack universe: here, the limits of listening are explored, thoughts are abducted and transported into a new, dazzling cosmos”… 

On “The Story Of Sam Buckett” except  Alex Djelassi & Dirk Raupach, there are a couple of guest musicians, Armin Schopper (Drums) & Steffen Gründel (Saxophone). The album contains 12 tracks equally divided into the 2 sides of the LP. The album takes off with the spacey-effected mind-bending futuristic electronic anthem “Rhode Island 1929” and continues in a fantastically trippy and Spacey way with “Higgs-Bosonometer” blending Space Rock with lots of KRAUT elements and flirting a bit with the famous Berlin School. “Quasar” is futuristic electronically flavored SPACE Rock with an intense cinematic feel, while “Bakku-Shan Dinner” is a cool futuristic-jazzy track with a strong LOUNGE-y addictive sense. The incredible Space Rock instrumental “Nahpunkt” follows, deeply Spacey effected, balladesque, emerging once more that unique cinematic feel of the band. Side “A” closes with the Way-Out-Of-Cool “Antineuralring”, an electronic spacey futuristic experimental TRIPPY tune! The cool “Surreal Journey” opens side “B” in a late-night, “surreal” Jazz-a-delic mood. “Toenivornia” is an abstract kind of Kraut track blending Jazz and Rock, while on “Twin Suns”, Sounds Of New Soma use a cool and transcendental Tangerine Dream-like environment to take us into the Faraway SPACE. “Himmlischer Wanderer” is another balladesque tune with a cool melody, voice samples, under a futuristic ambient-like background, while “Liquide Gravitation” is a robotic, New Space Age track, futuristically cinematic and deeply Kraut-affected! The concept album comes to an end (or maybe not) with “Merkurkanone”, the sound is dark, ambient, Krauty, Spacey, and electronically flavored, an amazing atmosphere is created by blending Tangerine Dream soundscapes with Neu ones, resulting in a Kraut-Space experiment! Trippy! Spacey too! Recommended for the Lovers of the Different! Grab it… TimeLord Michalis     

Tracklist

Links

Listen / Buy through SOUNDS OF NEW SOMA Bandcamp

Get it through TONZONEN Web

Check SOUNDS OF NEW SOMA Facebook