Memory Pearl ”Cosmic Astral“ (Altin Village & Mine) – frohfroh – electronic music from leipzig

With “Cosmic Astral”, the Canadian producer Moshe Fisher-Rotenberg alias memory Pearl delivered a fascinating second album on the Leipzig label Altin Village & Mine at the end of January. So fascinating that we present it again.

In its depth and conception, “Cosmic Astral” clearly stands out from common ambient productions. As with his debut (“Music for 7 Paintings”, 2020), Memory Pearl's music remains an experimental, atmospheric sound trip. And after the first album had drawn his inspiration from seven paintings in recent art history, “Cosmic Astral” finds its framework in psychotherapy and LSD research from fifty years ago.

The album sees itself as a modern, delicate reinterpretation of a once real music program that was used in psychedelically supported psychotherapies from the 1970s. The original program relied on classic works by Strauss, Skriabin or Holst, but was later rejected due to its confrontational intensity. The original idea of ​​playing the space of psychoactive perception with music is now taken over and worked out by Fisher-Rotenberg. The result is Famos: an album of a great psychological depth, at the same time life -affirming, sometimes almost hedonistic, never kitsch. The fact that it comes together is mainly due to the fact that Fisher-Rotenberg is a phenomenal composer and arranger.

This can be explained very well from the following observation: Despite the fact that “Cosmic Astral” comes along with a huge attachment of references and enormous psycho-social-historical depth, no bulky avant-garde is created musically. Rather, a multi -colored, detailed and sometimes playful sound world opens up, which impresses with its synthetic textures and finely worked depth.

The music is light -footed, the arrangements are effortless and the pieces unfold their spell very directly. For example, structure is not an issue here because it is a matter of course – just as it is used. The compositions work without conventional voltage arches, but consistently keep attention, and this unobtrusive naturalness could be interpreted as an expression of high compositional maturity. An open, lively sound trip unfolds, which is fulfilled to match the intended resonance room in psychoactive imagination as a form of joy of life and hedonia.

“Cosmic Astral” is a beautiful album for spring, fits fabulously into the cliché of the new start – without having to be ashamed of kitsch. At this point you also have to mention the Leipzig label Altin Village & Mine, which has again proven with Memory Pearl that it has an eye for extremely exciting releases. And it should still not go unmentioned that among the guests with Moritz fascinating aka Friederike Bernhardt (which also had a great release in winter, to which I have not yet found a desired words) can also be found an icon of leipzig experimental music.