CELESTIAL OCEAN

Although the songs of Celestial Ocean segue from one to the next, to me the album has three phases. The first is the hypnotic opening song, "Egyptian Kings," is a promising slice of Krautrock: melodic and odd, based on a psychedelic groove reminiscent of Amon Düül II. The the overdubbed spoken words of Brainticket members Carole Muriel, Barney Palm, and Joel Vandroogenbroeck weave in and out of the track, which is the high point of the album. The final song, "Visions," represents a distinct third phase. "Visions" begins with a Vandroogenbroeck piano workout unlike anything else on the album, almost like "Cans and Brahms" on Fragile. While it sounds very little like Wakeman, and nothing at all like "Cans and Brahms," the first three-and-a-half minutes of "Visions" is nonetheless a showcase with no apparent relation to either the album's theme or the musical style of the foregoing pieces. On its own, though, this showcase - - and "Visions" as a whole - - is very good. In both respects is resembles "Egyptian Kings," and I'm only being slightly facetious when I suggest that an "Egyptian Kings" / "Vision" single would've been preferable to the entire album.

At twenty-seven minutes, the six-song heart of Celestial Ocean seems to comprise a cohesive album, though not a very good one.  It opens with four minutes of seemingly aimless guitar strumming and flute and synth noodling - - apparent filler, to my ears. The "Jardins" → "Rainbow" → "Era of Technology" suite-within-a-suite ends with an electronic section with which the vocals recommence. These three songs represent a microcosm of Celestial Ocean, which intersperses occasional acoustic or electronic parts between hybrid passages. "To Another Universe" is a case in point, opening with electronics over a driving tom-tom rhythm and closing to a Mellotron motif playing over an acoustic guitar. This song is also the last in which vocals play a significant role.

The meandering "The Space Between" and the atmospheric "Cosmic Wind" are oddly happy-sounding new-age slapdashery seemingly out of place on an album dealing with a a mysterious theme. Also odd is the use of western scales here and throughout most of the album. I'm no music theorist, but apparently there are Arabic modes and scales which might have been a better fit. Further separating the music from the theme is the dearth of spoken word in the eighteen-minute stretch from "The Space Between" until the last minute of "Visions."

In short, Celestial Ocean sounds like the result of some talented and very creative people getting their hands on some newfangled synthesizers and a bunch of studio time. Cleopatra Records declares it "the definitive album from Krautrock electronic pioneers, Brainticket!," but I genuinely hope this isn't the case, especially given the potential demonstrated in "Egyptian Kings."