ALTER REALITY

Autumn Moonlight are a project by two Argentinian artists Mariano Spadafora who plays bass, piano, VSTI, and Tomas Barrionuevo who plays guitars, piano, VSTI. The album is entirely instrumental and moves effortlessly from melancholy guitar picking to heavy distorted metal riffs. 'alter reality' is nicely packaged with cool icy chill winter tree on a dark night. The music is icy too opening the title track with chilling reverberated guitar, beautifully played and then it builds into an aggressive distortion and the tempo quickens.

'Where all begins' is a calm guitar and steady rhythm until an onslaught of chunky metal riffs dominate at the end. The balance between light and dark keeps the listener interested. On 'Ghost' the music locks into a chugging riff as reverb lead guitar is overlaid; a very ethereal quality. This is a great start to the album generating feelings of isolation and remorse; the music evokes passionate feelings that one may experience in times of sorrow or regret.

'Odyssey' opens with a minimalist lonely piano and a marching drum joins in, then a pulsing bassline and atmospherics. It feels like a heavy Sigur Ros approach, or God is an Astronaut may be influential. 'Outer sunset' opens with crashing waves and then a grungy guitar chord over quiet piano, the balance works well. Then we are treated to a mesmerising lead break, where the guitar soars with sustained beauty. This is one of my favourite tracks on 'Alter Reality'. It is long at 7 minutes but has some haunting passages and hypnotic melodies that latch onto the senses.

'Falling sky' has an isolated piano that is very pretty. This builds with a heavy guitar phrase over the simple melody. 'Between wars' has some exceptional guitar work and a steady rhythm. This is relaxing, tranquil music. It later has a metal distortion crashing through, than releases into gentle guitar delay effects. 'Moving on' is also peaceful and then things kick up a notch with the heavy rock of 'Trine'. This one again moves from full distortion to calm relaxing guitar strumming.

'The eternal smile' has a beautiful sound with guitar delay soloing, and this builds into a fast tempo and heavy distortion. '28.5' closes things with soulful piano, that is easy to sleep to.

Overall this is a very nice instrumental album. It could be good to play while studying or relaxing as it has a great sound; not too dreamy due to explosions of distorted metal riffing. It is a good album for those after an instrumental album with excellent guitar and keyboard workouts.