Space Rock Productions (SPR090)
I’ve been a fan of the American psych/space rock band 3rd Ear Experience since I first heard them in 2014 when Space Rock Productions released their third album Incredible Good Fortune. This is their latest album, released on 2LP and 2CD, and quite a massive production all in all. The word ballet made me a bit scared at first since I’m not a big fan of that art form, but no worries, this is still proper, progressive space rock music. I have the marvelous splatter double vinyl, and the album is split in four acts that all take one side. I think it’s better if I’ll let themselves explain the concept:
“Twilight Sutra: the concept.
Twilight, is where night, and day light, blend – a great metaphor for
the union of opposites. Twilight is also a deceptive time, shadows and
light play tricks on your eyes – mind sees things that are not there,
and sometimes not seeing things, that are there.
The word Sutra means; a thread of minimum words, with maximum meaning. Many ancient wisdom doctrines are delivered in Sutras.
Twilight Sutra: the music:
The music is constructed for a modern dance ballet, in the way that Lou
Harrison the great American composer would supply choreographers with
“musical kits” – Twilight Sutra is composed of; clusters of musical
ideas that can be re-combined in countless different ways depending on
what the choreographer requires. This process of creating music to a
dancer is different than creating music that a dancer interprets.”
The album tells an adventurous story about a Viking boy but is too long to tell here. The music is very interesting, sort or “artsy” and mostly pretty slow and atmospheric. Most of the tracks have vocals that carry the story very well. I’m sometimes reminded of 70s Pink Floyd or Eloy. The instrumentation is pretty varied: guitars, bass, drums and percussion, keyboards, flute, saxophone & pedal steel. This is (luckily) definitely rock music and not classical music, apart form maybe some passages. Maybe more progressive/symphonic rock than psych/space rock, though. Anyway, I really like the album and there’s a lot to get into here. The lyrics are not printed anywhere, but the main story is, so it’s pretty easy to follow what’s happening where. A cool idea and excellent execution as well!
www.robbirobb.com/thirdearexperience/
The Twilight Sutra by 3rd Ear Experience
