[Reviewed by stark]
When I accidentally stumbled upon the information that the duo responsible for one of the most important albums of my life is not simply dead, I was quite excited. They’re alive and they have just release an album “Alive”, which is a recording of a live performance and my life just got better. What has happened with the project for twenty years since the release of the first and only album “Structure of Minds” you can read in the interview which can be found here (link).
As I mentioned, it is a recording of a no-audience show they performed in Hörsalen in Norrköping, Sweden. The video version is available on Youtube, the audio on Spotify. And it’s a mixture of the “Structure of Minds” songs and the new compositions, which – I hope – are the harbinger of a brand new album. Maybe one day, who knows.
When I played it for the first time, I felt right at home. A home from twenty years ago, when I was starting college and just had my first – and luckily only – major love disappointment. I remember “Structure Of Minds” was a perfect cure for calming my nerves back then. That music was warm and soothing even when it hit some darker corners every now and then. I remember Paweł Frelik in “Thrash’em All Magazine” has described it in his review as an “orange and relaxed music”. Not “relaxed” in the way New Age can be relaxing, but rather as a music which wraps you like a blissful coccoon and lets you dream in peace about tiny beautiful things. That peculiar ambient, often infused with trip-hop influences, corresponded well with my state of mind at the time.
On “Alive” the old tracks sound close to the original versions, although they have added a few new layers here and there and also it looks, or rather sounds, as if the music has gained some more space, though this may be the live performance impression. The new tracks… well, they maintain the intimate style the project has worked out on “Structure Of Minds”. It is like the meeting with old, long time unseen friends. There’s still this tiny private magic I was captured by years ago. And I expect nothing more to whole heartly enjoy this music.
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self-released
Digital 2021
Santa Sangre 