12 August 2025

COSMIC GARDEN PROJECT – Red Sand Blue Soil (2025, LP, Green Street Records/Sound Effect Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Green Street Records / Sound Effect Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl, 140gram, Gatefold (comes with lyrics and original water colour paintings), 300 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Deep Purple Transparent Vinyl, 140gram, Gatefold (comes with lyrics and original water colour paintings), 100 copies

Release Date: 30 May 2025

After their 2023 debut LP album “The Green Reverb”, the Swedish supergroup – Cosmic Garden Project – is back with their sophomore LP “Red Sand Blue Soil”.

Here’s some info taken from band’s Bandcamp page:

“Cosmic Garden Project is a Music & Art Collective founded in 2019 by Per Svensson (The New Alchemy, The Kingdom of Evol), Dan Söderqvist (Älgarnas Trädgård, Twice a Man) and Pontus Torstensson (Tentakel, The Exorcist GBG). Jerry Johansson (Grovjobb) joined the band in 2024.

With their second album ”Red Sand Blue Soil” Cosmic Garden Project are leaving Earth to find new values and other dimensions, musically and spiritually, exploring the map of Mars as visual inspiration for both lyrics and sound.

The band creates something ”Extra Terrestrial” this time with titles such as ”Leaving Earth”, ”Olympus Mons” ”Ecopoets on Mars” and ”Astral Bodies”. They explore elevation and space travel via the music and the inner journey of the soul. ”The Doors are Open” describes the free spirit and the open soul. A visual peak is ”Extra Terrestrial Kaleidoscope” that visualize new life in the universe through the perspective of alien eyes.

A journey among planets and stars, never leaving the musical focus, tight together, although spreading the poetry of The Cosmic Garden Project where ever they go, coloured with their specific psychedelic sound built on folk, ambient and psychedelic rock in the tradition of 70s Swedish Psychedelia.

Cosmic Garden Project is now a quartet as new member Jerry Johansson (Grovjobb etc) joins the band on guitars and sitar”…

With “Red Sand Blue Soil”, Cosmic Garden Project transcend the atmosphere and fully embrace the cosmic mission they began with their debut LP. This sophomore release is full of spiritual expansion, psychedelic introspection, and sonic storytelling. Inspired by the landscapes of Mars and the limitless possibilities of outer and inner space, the band crafts six thematically unified yet sonically diverse tracks that navigate planetary isolation, mystical awakenings, and the poetry of the unknown.

The addition of Jerry Johansson—known for his work with Grovjobb and his mastery of sitar and psychedelic guitar – adds a profound depth and eastern sensibility to the band’s texture. Now a quartet, Cosmic Garden Project find themselves freer and more focused, channeling 70s Swedish Psychedelia through ambient rock, acid folk, and exploratory soundscapes. The quartet consists of Dan Söderqvist (Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Electronics), Per Svensson (Vocals, Bass, Hammond Organ, Prepared Piano), Jerry Johansson (Sitar, 6 &12-Stringed Electric Guitar), and Pontus Torstensson (Drums).

“Red Sand Blue Soil” is a journey with 6 stops/tracks, 3 on each side of the LP album. The album opens with “Leaving Earth”, the song begins like a spiritual launch sequence, with ambient drones and minimalist folk guitar evoking the solitude of departure. Soaring guitar lines hint at the excitement of the unknown while Johansson’s sitar subtly joins the mix/trip, adding a timeless, transcendental quality. This is not just physical departure; it’s a metaphysical shedding of skin… Named after the highest volcano in our solar system, “Olympus Mons” stands tall as one of the album’s musical peaks. The track builds slowly with tribal percussion and swirling synth textures, conjuring images of towering alien landscapes. The band’s signature blend of ambient rock and psych-folk creates a Psychedelic soundscape both majestic and eerie. Vocals are sparse, almost chanted, as if echoing through Martian valleys. This is elevation music, both literally and spiritually. Perhaps the most conceptually rich track on the album, is “Ecopoets on Mars” (despite the fact that is the shorter song here, 4:34min). Musically, it’s one of the more melodic offerings on the record, with gentle acoustic guitars, flute-like synths, and a warm bassline anchoring the floating harmonies. It’s a ballad for those who plant seeds in red soil, both literally and metaphorically. This is a song that makes us reminisce about the good old days of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars… Side B opens with “Astral Bodies”, and it feels like the album enters a more abstract and dreamy terrain. The track is largely instrumental, driven by slowly unfolding ambient textures and cosmic improvisation. Echoed guitar lines shimmer across vast sonic plains, while distant vocals drift like signals from beyond… “astral bodies forming a circle, floating…travel through the fields of grass… Red Sand Blue Soil Orange Water…”. Think early Popol Vuh or Bo Hansson crossed with lunar jazz. The next one, “The Door Is Open”, is the spiritual heart of the album. The band blends eastern-influenced modal guitar work with hypnotic rhythms, evoking the freedom of unbarred thresholds. Johansson’s sitar shines brightest here, adding a sense of ceremony to the song’s central message: the journey inward is as vast as the one outward… The album closes with its most vividly imaginative piece, “Extra Terrestrial Kaleidoscope” is a multi-layered psych odyssey told through alien eyes. Musically, it’s a rich tapestry—flashes of color, strange time signatures, distorted motifs, and looping riffs collide in a sonic hallucination. This is the moment the listener realizes they’ve truly left Earth behind, reassembled in a higher frequency dimension. The track’s title says it all: a shifting lens on what life, consciousness, and creation might mean when viewed through unfamiliar perspectives…

“Red Sand Blue Soil” is not merely a concept album – it’s a complete sensory voyage. Cosmic Garden Project masterfully blend ambient psychedelia with progressive folk structures and space rock, crafting music that meditates, travels, and reveals. With their feet no longer on Earth, the band has tapped into a deeper, more refined sound that manages to be spacious without losing intensity. Cosmic Garden Project brought Psychedelia into Space! In a time where so much music feels either over-produced or under-inspired, “Red Sand Blue Soil” offers something rare: a psychedelic vision rooted in imagination, humility, and interstellar poetry. Highly recommended for fans of Träd, Gräs och Stenar, Amon Düül II, Bo Hansson, and cosmic seekers everywhere. TimeLord Michalis

ps undoubtedly one of the BEST albums of 2025, grab it!