JOURNEY TO AN ORACLE

A psychedelic electronic trip, from the "Golden Decade" of Progressive/electronic music.

Low profile Bernard Xolotl, could be claimed among the co-founders of "Prog/Cosmic Synth Music" in accordance that electronic music has been with us since the late 1920, early 30's (more or less). And that this kind of "celestial" music, has always been in the mind of 1000s of electronic music composers, then and now, in any field of music, electronic and not.

This psychedelic "Journey to an Oracle", 1977, is so unique, rich in instrumental arrangements and an austounding direction in composition and performance, I have a hard time thinking, why we 3 people who have rated it, differ so much?

Been that it has no other reviews, you will have to trust me, on this one. Here are my findings:

It does not sound, not even a bit, like Schulze nor Tangerine Dream's same decade projects, that for starters, rips it away, from the zillion clones, happening at the time, then and now (as always).

The tone in general is non-stop dynamic, yet introspective. How? By the compositional structure of each melodic line, in a sonic universe of several melodic lines in each composition. I mean several, baroque like music several. Therefore it is also close to early fast paced,"classic" minimalism, well in tune with this era's, "new" musical discoveries. Because of the same, it offers an unexpected amount of sonic proposals, not contemplated by his fellow 70's prog-electronic/composers.

By psychedelic I do not mean far fetched "fake-drug induced music experimentations". I mean, multi-colored musical structures, constructing themselves progressively and simultaneously with clear thought songwriting, extraordinary arrangements and a flawless production, which no progressive electronic counterpart at the time, came close to releasing. Really its production alone, is ground-breaking (competing tightlly with YMO's in this regard). But its compositions and directions are close to genial (as opposed to YMO's).

So for me it has been a pleasure, to aquire such a great Progressive/Electronic album, from a rather obscure and unknown artist. I will share the news.

****4 plus something, PA stars. Enjoy!