Øresund Space Collective Visions of... Review by Gary Hill
I always like this band. Their brand of space rock is all improvised. Like most space rock, it shifts and changes slowly. There is a pretty wide swath of sound covered by this disc, though. It's all instrumental, but it's all quite compelling. The cuts range in length from the neighborhood of eight minutes all the way to up 42 minutes plus. If you dig cool instrumental space rock (with some fusion blended in), give this a try. You are likely to really enjoy it.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2017 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Visions of ...
A lot of music gets called "epic" based on length of the piece (among other things). Well, if the time spent is any indication of epic status, this number beats most. It's over 42-minutes long. It comes together in a rather chaotic way and gradually starts to gain some sort of semblance of unified course and structure. It's very much a fusion meets space rock kind of thing as it continues to work forward. By around the four minute mark it has evolved into more pure space rock that's quite trippy in nature and has a cool groove. It continues to evolve from there. It builds outward from there turning into some seriously screaming hot stuff. This thing works through so many shifts and changes as it works through the space rock menu on hand. Like most space rock, nothing changes quickly, instead very gradually involving. After a drop back around the middle of the cut it works out to something that makes me think of a harder edged version of The Grateful Dead mixed with Pink Floyd. I really love some of the soloing that ensues in the second half of the piece. It's not that there wasn't some great stuff in the first half. It's just that the second half really excels.
Above the Corner On a lot of albums, this would be the longest song. Here (at almost 16 and a half minutes) it's a distant second. It comes in with a cool funky groove that's part fusion and part space music. There is some space rock in the mix here, but really this is much more of a driving fusion cut than it is space. It's also a lot of fun. It's packed with energy and really rocks. This really gets into some powerful space later in the number.
Piece of Seven At just over eight and a half minutes in length, this is the shortest cut here. It comes in with some killer psychedelia and grows out from there. As it continues to build it is more pure space rock. There are some excellent middle Eastern elements later.
Around the Corner This is more of a straightforward rocker. Sure, it's still packed with plenty of tasty space music, but it's really a driving rock tune in so many ways. The guitar soloing on it really rocks, too. This thing continues driving forward in style. Parts of it are very much in line with Hawkwind. Other things lean almost toward more standard hard rock from the 70s. When it drops down at the end, it's all Hawkwind, though.
