SPACE MIRRORS – The Obscure Side of Art Album

Brief history lesson – Space Mirrors is the project from Alisa Coral, a Russian multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer and all-round musical talent. The debut album, “The Darker Side of Art”, an instrumental offering, was released to great critical acclaim from space-rock, psych, prog and Euro-rock fans alike. Following that, she released a clutch of excellent modern metal albums, mainly song-based, with a band and the occasional famous guest. Now, she is returning to her roots, with what is essentially, the next step in the chain that began a long time ago.....

Apart from bass work on a few tracks courtesy of long-time band member Gabriel Monticello, plus piano on one track from Yael Kroy, the whole thing is played by Alisa Coral on an arsenal of synths, keys, guitars, percussion and drums. The album opener sets the scene with a soaring slice of multi-layered space synths as a pulsing rhythm drifts in the distance, then you hear drums echoing from afar, the amorphous synths swoop and soar, as the whole thing drifts in a huge expanse of space, reminding me strongly of T Dream's “Alpha Centauri-Atem” era. But then this restrained yet heated electric guitar layer, simmers in a haze of fuzz as the remarkable track comes to an end.

From there, the 9 minute title track suddenly explodes in a hail of drums, synths, deep bass and soaring synth melodies, as the thick mass of psychedelic guitar sets fire to a heated drift below it all. By now, there's this huge depth of instrumentation, more layers than a wedding cake, as the track stomps along with authority, sequencers entering to give added strength to the rhythms, the electronics flying all over the show, as the drums thud and drive, the assorted layers coalesce into a rhythmic melody line, and the sheer strength of it all, is positively mesmerising, mixing Teutonic Electronic, space-rock and psych in one breathtaking melting pot, ending in a rhythm-free squall of Tim Blake-esque synths.

“Trip To Mars/Mars Insight” decelerates the intensity thanks to a lightness of touch from the electronics that waft over relaxed strummed, guitar, chunky drumming propelling the piece slowly on, and a seemingly endless drift before the track suddenly changes shape courtesy of Middle Eastern-sounding percussion, a drone here, a synth drift there, the guitar flying slowly on as more and more layers rise like smoke rings into the skies and the whole thing is a bright, relaxing and quite exquisite mix of atmosphere and rhythmic solidity, sort of “Michael Rother-meets-Klaus Schulze on a sunny day”.

The 8 and a half minute “Bronze City In The Dream Valley” kind of continues where the previous track left off, only here the strummed guitar work is more to the fore, the exotic percussion and drumming clops along strongly while the appearance of Alisa on flute, provides a decided sound and feel of the classic Krautrock album “A Meditation Mass” by Yatha Sidhra, form a galaxy a long time ago, only here, she adds more of that twangy guitar, the rhythms are altogether more muscular but rarely has a flute lead (which normally I just don't get on with), sounded so perfect for the gradually increasing intensity of the track, as the guitar work gets more heated, more savage and the piece, overall, really starts to erupt, only then to drop back to what has so far been its addictive structural path – a truly stunning composition!!

“Beyond The Pluto” is a 7 minute track that starts with sequencers, assorted layers of electronics, bleeping and drifting away, as what sounds like some out of focus sea of rippling violin strings from an alternate galaxy, drifts in and out. Then, a magnificently mighty, chunky drum rhythm starts in the background as the sequencers continue, synth leads of a more restrained nature, interweave through and round the rhythms and layers, as the whole thing tumbles along in a kind of much darker atmosphere, with all layers and textures, rhythms and drifts, blending together in one huge expanse of “electronic cosmic darkwave Space-rock”, and the effect is mesmerising, ending on a massively intense sea of guitars and electronics, rising up like some monster from the deep, and every bit as scary.

The 5 and a half minute “Dark Jedi Is Dead”, roars into life via a cyclical piano melody line, searing heat guitar bursts, deep bass layers of electronics and bass, solid spiky drumming, and yet another ocean of intensity that ebbs and flows as the track progresses. Then, as the rhythms continue, the mix of distant flute, synths and guitar bursts, plus the forefront bass work, allied to a synth melody line that flies into the sky then disappears abruptly, only for the hugely dense strident core of the track, to intensify, add more guitars and climb to the heavens in a manner that's almost commercial, with delightfully melodic touch from the piano, which again, albeit brief, sits perfectly in among the massed ranks of electronics, guitars and drumming.

The album ends with a kind of “bonus track” in the form of a 2019 studio demo of the aforementioned “Bronze City” and, far from filler, actually gets you right into the heart and soul of what the huge expanse that is the album track proper, eventually became.

Overall, this really took me by surprise as an album as there's a vast expanse of atmosphere, texture, melody, drift and rhythm, but where I would have anticipated lots of solos, lead breaks and tunes from the guitars and synths, far from erupting, this album is the most magnificent simmering volcano set to music, that you could hope to hear.