3.5

Release data:

Valley Forge – Leaving to Nothing
CD, Private Release, 1995

From time to time, there’s electronic music that sounds highly original and rather weird at the same time. In my view, the Valley Forge debut album “Leaving to Nothing” belongs to that category, featuring psychedelic electronic (post)rock with occasional symphonic elements made with analog synthesizers, electronic/acoustic drums and guitars.

Unpredictable and adventurous are the keywords for the 47-minute narrative and cinematic-flavored release, in which I vaguely detect echoes of ELP, the German duo Unique and Pink Floyd occasionally. In the hands of Thomas Bechholds (synthesizer, organ, piano, vocoder), Michael Seitz (drums, percussion, synthesizer) and Jürgen Winter (guitars), things though are totally mixed up, blown apart or turned inside out.

The 14-minute cosmic opener “The Entrance” already makes clear this kind of music can be very rewarding if one is patient and listening attentively, while the title track is a powerful and evocative piece of instrumental progrock. The tracks in between tell their own hallucinatory story, straying into peculiar sonic territory that defies description, although the glow and vibe of the mid ’70’s seem a red tread.
So try “Leaving to Nothing” if you’d like to dip into something sonically completely different.