Øresund Space Collective: Organic Earthly Floatation

Space Rock Productions (SPR015)

 

It has been a busy year for Danish/Swedish spacey psychedelic improvisation group Øresund Space Collective. Their latest release (the 16th in total!) is a limited (100 copies on blue, 400 on black) vinyl album Organic Earthly Floatation released today on their own Space Rock Productions label. This 47-minute album was recorded at the Black Tornado Studios in Copenhagen in April 2012, and is very good indeed. The sessions were quite guitar dominated, but you will find the usual psychedelic synth swooshes and space noises as well, of course. All the members of the excellent Copenhagen-based band Papir play on this album.

The first track “Walking on Clouds” makes an exception in the OSC universe since it is an original composition written by the visiting guitar player Daniel from the US, although the rest of the band just jam on it for over 19 minutes… This is very nice, laid-back stuff with a sort of early 70s prog touch. The guitar players really fly high on this one! The track gets more intense at times and there are also some excellent space bubbles by Dr. Space. Brilliant! “Walking on Clouds Part 2” is a peaceful, blissful six-minute reprise and has more synths and wonderful delay guitar. On side B we’ve got the 17-minute “Carlos on the Moon” and a shorter “Neptune Rising”. Although I really enjoy side A, I think “Carlos…” is maybe even better. It starts off in a very laid-back, relaxed way, and this goes on for a long time. The track starts to rock around the 13-minute-marker and then cools down again. Wonderful! The five-minute “Neptune Rising” is the only track to feature the whole Papir line-up and, not surprisingly, reminds me of some of their most free-form stuff. It’s faster than the rest of the album and sort of out-of-focus a bit, but the great guitar work, hypnotic synths and weird, otherworldly vibe still make it quite special. Sort of like Hawkwind jamming in 1977 or something. The cover art that gives this excellent release a fine final touch is by Finnish artist Eetu Pellonpää. Warmly recommended for all lovers of cosmic, psychedelic instrumental music! And don’t forget to buy the Entering into the Space Country/Phase Your Fears 2CD (SRO011) in case you missed on the original vinyl albums… It’s definitely worth it!

 www.oresundspacecollective.com