Regal Grabomophone (winkle 59)
Himmelaya is a new krautrock oriented project by Astralasia’s Swordfish and Jochen Oberlack (Bellerephon Records, Düsseldorf). First, it was supposed to be an instrumental project, but Britt from the Swedish psych folk duo Us and Them was also asked to join on spoken word (in Swedish and English…) and vocals (in English…), which is wonderful. There are also some other friends guesting and the 2LP comes with a bonus double CD full of bonus tracks and remixes by the likes of nick nicely, Schizo Fun Addict and the Lost Stoned Pandas.Wow!
Now, all this sounds too good to pass already on paper, but I can tell you that the music is really great on this one in reality too! I’m not going to go through all the 11 tracks on the double vinyl, but I can say that there are definitively vibes of of 70s krautrock and experimental electronic acts like NEU!, Kraftwerk, Amon Düül (II), Ash Ra Tempel, Brainticket etc. It is all done with a modern touch, though. Some of the stuff is pretty up-beat and motorik, but we also get slower, dreamy ambient tracks, some acoustic stuff, all in good balance. All this makes me wish they would have asked me to join as well… Would have been so cool! Anyway, this seems like the most important Fruits de Mer Records related release this year, so make sure not to miss it.
fruitsdemerrecords.com/himmelaya.html
