[‘ramp] - Astral Disaster (live at Bochum Planetarium)

4.5

Release data:

[‘ramp] Astral Disaster (live at Bochum Planetarium)
CD, Private Release, 2012

“Astral Disaster”, the first proper [‘ramp] live album since the release of “Oughtibridge”, is a limited edition, factory-pressed cd by German composer and sound explorer Stephen Parsick, who once more offers his fans a great and most exciting treat. It contains six new pieces of music composed especially for the Bochum Planetarium concert of 7th July 2012 along two renditions of tracks found on the previous studio-album “Return”.

The Bochum-concert comprised two sets of roughly 45 minutes each, that again displays a great sense of power, rawness and vintage adventurism characterizing Mr Parsick’s quality doombient for so many years. I just love those haunting choir and mellotron textures along the whole assortment of other vintage wizardy and tantalizing, circular sequencer patterns scattered all over the place, altogether creating a massive and mysterious tapestry of cosmic sounds. Occasionally, the dynamic work of Redshift is a good point of reference here, although I also very much enjoy to immerse into the smooth, dreamy spaces of [‘ramp]‘s music (such as “Halo Inductor” or “The nameless is the origin”).

As mentioned in the press sheet, the second set (“Doomsday is family time”) celebrates the 40th anniversary of both the composer and the release of Tangerine Dream´s classic’s “Zeit” and “Atem”. Here, Stephen displays an extensive range of improvisations on VCS-3, organ and Mellotron before things culminate in the epic title track and the ultimate power-exercise “Jericho” (inspired by the Mellotron brass patch). Make sure the latter is played loud to feel its full impact and potential. Listening and immersing into all music also made me feel sorry I wasn’t able to attend this live concert and planetarium show.

All in all, the excellent mastered and produced “Astral Distaster” makes another marvelous and dynamic statement by Mr Parsick that won’t disappoint the least.
Highly recommended!

Website: www.parsick.com

You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the [‘ramp] artist page