Astral Magic news: new album coming up!

I have just received some lead guitar and violin tracks for the new album from my trusty collaborator Jonathan Segel. I will try to mix "In Space We Trust" by the end of the week and send the stuff back to Jonathan for mastering.

The plan is to release it on the next Bandcamp Friday, 2nd of May. Since hardly anybody seems to buy albums anymore, this will only be a limited, factory-made CD-R release of 50 copies. But it will be great stuff, I tell you!

 I might release an (amateur...) video before the release date.

Tracks on the 42-minute album are:

 

In Space We Trust

Anti-gravity

Martian Archives

Light-years Apart

Ancient Pilots

Alien Emperor

Stasis

Deep-frozen

Øresund Space Collective - Relaxing in the Himalayas

 Space Rock Productions (SRP087)

This OSC album was originally released on CD only in October 2021 and it was limited to 300 copies. It was initially available to the Bandcamp subscribers only, so I don't have that. It seems to be sold-out by now, as well! The LP version was released recently in two variations: 130 copies on clear and 170 on black vinyl. The open getafold cover with artwork by Robin Lindström is very cool too.

The album includes only one 45-minute track: "Relaxing in the Himalayas" which of course is now edited into two sections for the vinyl format. It's a pretty hypnotic, mystical and a bit Eastern styled, mid-tempo journey. The track comes from the 2014 sessions with seven talented and inspired musicians and was the first piece this line-up jammed together. Considering that, it's a very deep trip and highly enjoyable to listen to. This is another great OSC release for sure!

 oresundspacecollective.bandcamp.com

West Space & Love - Vol. III

 Space Rock Productions (SRP086)

As you probaby can figure out yourself, this is the third album by the trio formed by multi-instrumentalist KG West and drummer and percussionist Love Forsberg (both from Siena Root) together with synth wizard Dr Space aka Scott Heller. This time they also have Hasse Horrigmoe, a very frequent participant in all things Dr Space/Øresund Space Collective, as spaciel guest on shakers, bass and congas.

The totally instrumental album has a very hippie vibe, mostly due to the very fluent sitar playing by KG. They start off with the groovy and nice "One Step Ahead". Then we've got the the very Indian sounding "Mouth of Sand". Bluesy and relaxing "Time Expansion" ends side A, cool Fender Rhodes on this one. On the B side we've got just two pieces. First, the short "Lost Hippie in Africa" and then the long, more synth-oriented coscmic ambient piece "Explaining Reality" with some cool Mellotron stuff etc. The last number sounds like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream or something, very nice. Only 130 copies were made on red vinyl and 170 on black. There are also 300 copies availbale on CD for those who prefer that format. I like this album a lot!

 

New Astral Magic video online etc.!

 Hi there!

Please check out the video for the title track of the next Astral Magic album Dance of Destiny! The album will be out 7.3.2025 and available on limited edition CD and digital download. Would also fit on LP, if some label is interested?!

Other news is that I just got frozen in Facebook again after a few group postings... Seems useless.

Oh, the Chakra Vimana album will be released on Tonzonen Records on 23.5.2025! 300 copies on coloured vinyl and also on digipack CD. I'm so excited!

 

Schizo Fun Addict - An Introduction to...

 Fruits de Mer Records (intro 7)

Schizo Fun Addict is one of the favourite children of Fruits de Mer. Well, actually they've been involved even since the  Bracken Records days releasing two singles on the FdM precussor label as well. On this double-CD-R we have most of the band's Fruits de Mer back catalogue along with some novelties for a good measure. I've always been a fan of the band's take on psychedelic rock that has elements and vibes from the 60s all the way to the 80s, 90s and beyond.

The first disc starts with the band's FdM debut single Volume One and I just love these cover tunes. Three cuts form the Suspiria EP are wonderful too, of course... Then we get the 7" postcard single track "Take a Heart" and several songs from their FdM album The Sun Yard. Then we have pieces from Sunny Spells EP and Head Music 3 3LP and even some rare promo etc. tracks that I have never even heard before! The disc one ends with three tracks from Love Your Enemies album. Wonderful psych pop tunes in there.

 The second disc starts off with even nine songs from the band's The Last Wave album released on Friends of the Fish together with the legendary Flicknife Records in 2020. I missed this one since there were sadly only 99 copies made on LP, so it's nice to have the tracks here, at least. One digital single and split cassette track later we get to the tracks from their El Shoegaze Bossa Nova LP that was actually released on Sugarbush Records, not on FdM. I'm not a big fan of bossanova, so I did not buy that one... But the real gold is saved until the end when we get to hear some alternative mixes and previously unreleased stuff! You'll definitely get your money's worth with this great compilation, warmly recommended. This will be available at the end of this month.

www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sfaintro.html 

schizofunaddict.bandcamp.com/ 

 

 

Astral Magic - Dance of Destiny CD review in Dutch (with English translation)

 A great 4.5/5 review by Carry Munter of the next Astral Magic album out on the 7th of March:

carrysnewundergroundmusic.blogspot.com/2025/02/review-astral-magic-dance-of-destiny.html 

 

 Here's translation for those who do not speak Dutch for some reason:

 

Astral Magic from Finland is the solo project of bassist Santtu Laakso, a member of the psychedelic space rock band Dark Sun, which was founded in 1991.

On September 30, 2020, he released his first solo album, Pathway To The Stars, followed by 65 more digital releases, some of which were also issued on LP and CD through Space Rock Productions, Sapphire Records, Clostridium, Tonzonen Records, and Aumega Project. On March 6, 2025, Dance Of Destiny will be released on his own label, Astral Magic Music, both as a CD and a digital download. The album features eight tracks, with Laakso playing all the instruments himself, except for track 2, where his son Anton contributes on Moog.

The album opens with Intro - Open The Portal, a fantastic up-tempo krautrock piece, followed by the title track Dance Of Destiny, a brilliant space rock song with a steady tempo and a catchy recurring rhythm influenced by the music of Hawkwind.
Next is Distortion In Space-Time, a fantastic up-tempo progressive rock track with an Eastern vibe, space rock influences, a swinging rhythm, and tempo changes, followed by We Plunge Into Chaos, an excellent melodic space rock song with light space rock elements and an infectious rhythm.

In Transmission Psi, Astral Magic delivers a delightful, Eastern-sounding track at a moderate tempo, reminiscent of In The Labyrinth, while Slumber Of The Ancient Ones offers an outstanding space rock song with a not-too-fast pace and a hypnotic rhythm that induces a light trance.

The album continues with Zep Tepi, a swinging, up-tempo space rock song with an infectious recurring rhythm that makes it impossible to sit still, and concludes with Last Days Of A Time Cycle, a delightful electronic track at a moderate tempo, which could easily have been performed by Kitaro.

Dance Of Destiny by Astral Magic contains eight outstanding tracks, primarily categorized under space rock. I thoroughly enjoyed this remarkable album and highly recommend it to every fan of the genre.

Strange Vibrations - a new Astral Magic related project!

Okay, so what is Strange Vibrations and how it came into existence? 

A couple of weeks ago, I received my first new synthesizer for a few years, Stylophone CPM DS-2 Analogue Drone Synthesizer, to be exact. Of course I had to try it out... In a couple of days I ended up with nine experimental tracks all started with the CPM DS-02. I added other synths and then decided to ask Shane to join in, since this kind of experimental stuff always is more interesting (to me, at least) with some spoken word. This time I gave him all the subject matter ideas beforehand with some links to get inspired. Shane did a great job very fast as usual, and really delivered the goods like I knew he would! Later I added more stuff like electric guitars and more synths, even some percussive things. Now this all started to sound like something that should get out there...

I had recently decided not to put out new Astral Magic releases as often as before, so an idea was received from my friend Jaire to release this under a different project name. That I way I could still keep my promise without cheating (much...)! I decided to call this new project Strange Vibrations according to one of the tracks, and Shane liked that too. To shake things even more I did remixes of two of the most "normal" tracks and put those out first as "Astral Magic Mix" single. I added bass guitar and my vocals to these single versions, two of the most recognizable elements from Astral Magic that I have decided never to use in Strange Vibrations to keep some distance.

Jonathan Segel helped us a lot by mastering all the stuff while I came up with all the dodgy artwork myself (Andy was too busy making three different designs for my other projects...). Getting confused? No wonder... Anyway, this is more or less how it all happened. I hope you like it! The album will be out on March the 7th only on Bandcamp (and maybe YouTube) as digital download and limited edition of 33 copies on home-made CD-R. There will also be a new Astral Magic CD Dance of Destiny available then. The Longing for the Stars / Solarwind single was released last Friday when Bandcamp donated all their share to victims of the Los Angeles fires, you can hear and buy it here: