Saturnia: Muzak
Muzak is the new album by Saturnia, a project of Luis Simone from Portugal. The album was recorded in between 2003 and 2005, and also features some guests, most famous being Nik Turner and Daevid Allen. Saturnia’s previous release, 2003’s Hydrophonic Gardening, was an excellent, soft, peaceful and cosmic experience, and now Luis has switched into a bit groovier style. This time, there is also a lot more vocals, and Luis’s soft, dreamy voice is real pleasurable to hear. Muzak includes no fillers, and each and every one of the albums ten tracks are masterpieces. Although there is again some programming involved, the album still sounds very organic. The exquisite drum rhythms, really deep bass and various keyboards and synthesizers are often playing the main role, but there is also some acoustic guitar, sitar, tampura, flute, gong, chimes, lap steel guitar etc. in there. The overall feel of the album is very psychedelic.
The opening track ”Mindrama” is the grooviest on the CD, and it’s totally danceable stuff. The hypnotic vocals and psychedelic effects as well as the effective beat make it possibly the best number on the album, amazing! The second track “Organza” works and grooves very well too, and features Nik Turner on flute. This number has also some very spacey analogue synth stuff. The slower, 60’s psych pop ballad “Kite” is a beautiful and melancholic track with soft vocals and has some organ and Mellotron sounds and also for example a bit of acoustic guitar. “Infinite Chord” is, apart from a few oms, an instrumental, repetitive and cosmic track, totally mind-blowing stuff, as well. “Analepsis” is a tad more relaxed, slow and peaceful song, although at times the going gets a bit livelier. “Aqua” is a slow, beautiful, mellow ballad with trip hop beat and Mellotron sounds, and sort of reminds me of Air. At times the track gets rather psychedelic and the melancholic, ascending chord progression in the end brings to mind Pink Floyd or King Crimson’s fist album. One of the best tracks on the album. “Nipple” begins in a very psychedelic way apparently with some treated field-recordings, after which it’s time again for some peaceful Pink Floydish going, but the tracks also gets a bit more rhythmical at some point. The slow and dreamy “Utterly Luminescent” includes for example some droney sitar and vibraphone. The faster, psychedelic “Hedge Maze” has even some jazzy tones, soft, almost whispering vocals and cosmic vibrations. The album finishes with “Syrian” that starts off in a percussive way and has Daevid Allen delivering the very effective, narrative vocals. It has a rather mystical, dark atmosphere. This is just a totally amazing album for sure, and I can warmly recommend this to all the friends of psychedelic music!
Psychotropic Zone 26.01.07 by Dj Astro
