Dreamscape (Spacebirds-II) (LP)

Label: Laser Visa
Catalog: [LV003]
Style: Spacesynth, French Spacepop, Cosmic Disco, Ambient, Sci-Fi Electro
Time 56:41
Recorded: July – August 2010
Digital quality: 320 kbps mp3, stereo
Size: 130 mb
Release date: 2010-09-11



Track-listing:


1. Intro (1:42)
2. Dreamscape (4:03)
3. Space Chase (3:58)
4. Interlude (0:56)
5. Traces On The Moon (5:14)
6. Transpluton (3:53)
7. Mysterium (7:30)
8. Starfighter (4:02)
9. Interlude # 2 (1:04)
10. Fantastic Voyage (4:04)
11. Back To The Space (4:00)
12. Interlude # 3 (1:15)
13. Attraction Of The Black Chasm (5:24)
14. Echo Of Strange Organ (3:51)
15. Space Calm (Short Mix) (5:45)

REVIEW via FAR FROM MOSCOW

The most closely related recording in the last few weeks has been an album from Moscow's Spacebirds, one of the countless side-projects operated by Evgenii Kharitonov (aka Eugene Kha). The tracks were all recorded on Arturia synthesizers, in other words on tools of French origin - and it was precisely French spacepop that had a great influence in Russia, following Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygène" in 1976. While cynicism exploded in music of the UK, mid-70s continental offerings preferred the grand or orchestral leanings of Jarre and other operatic Frenchmen. Themes of space and galactic grandeur prevailed over the social critique echoing from British radios.
Spacebirds' new "Dreamscape" album is replete with some loud sci-fi cover art (above), showing a spaceship "going boldly where no man has gone before." The destination on display, though, is a huge ball of fire - maybe not the wisest stopping-point. Hyperbolic narratives, however, have no time for such mundane concerns.
Romance, risk, and a knowing smile are all rolled into one.
Important here is the element of kitsch that we see in much of the music and its visual presentation. Kitschy artifacts by their very nature are a blend of two elements: high levels of sentiment and the lowly workings of commerce. They are the result of a private yearning thrust into the public marketplace, to the point where the personal desire they once expressed loses all forms of dignity. Kitsch forms of expression mirror the dual pressures audible in these recordings: a lonely idealism and the dead weight of commerce.



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