DAEDALUS

Celebrating 15 years as a musical entity, DAAL, the Italian duo of Davide Guidoni and Alfio Costa has delivered some of the most exhilarating musical statements in the 21st century that have mixed various elements of progressive rock, progressive electronic and pacifying space rock with myriad touches of avant-garde. Several albums and shorter releases later, DAAL is back four years after the double dose releases of "Navels Falling Into A Living Origami" and "Decalogue Of Darkness" with a brand new dose of sophisticated space prog waiting to unfold and slink its way into your consciousness.

DAEDALUS is the band's newest release and yes this is a band. In addition to Costa (keyboards) and Guidoni (drums, percussion and other keys), the musicians Ettore Salati (guitars) and Bobo Aiolfi (bass) are back for another stint with the dynamic duo of Italian space prog. DAEDALUS takes the listener into another hour long journey of nuanced processions through ambience, symphonic splendor and guitar rock heft in all instrumental form as always. The limited edition (with different cover art) adds another three tracks to the original list of six and as always the production is state of the art with beautiful sounds existing on many levels.

DAAL continues to deliver an ethereal mix of progressive rock elements and the abstract nature of this style of detached from reality prog makes it difficult to distinguish one album from the next at least in terms of conveying differences through the means of mere language. The DAAL experience really must be heard to be comprehended. In writing, DAEDALUS continues down the DAAL playbook without much in terms of new elements being added to the band's now classic underground space prog sound. In short, if you are already a huge fan of what DAAL has delivered in the past, then you will not be disappointed in the least with DAEDALUS as it engages the same escapist journey through space rock dreams comes true.

Bookended by the space rock splendor of "Journey Through the Spiral Mind," DAAL showcases its classic repetitive grooves laced with psychedelic atmospheric touches that spiral out into larger compositional fortitude in a logical procession that allows the listener to simply chill out and go along for the ride, a ride that evokes classic prog sounds ranging from King Crimson, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd yet never sounding like any other artist from the golden age of prog. Masters of musical foreplay, DAAL introduces digestible melodies and musical motifs that slowly aggregate more accompanying sounds until the equivalent of a full space effect emerges however at no point on the album does anything sound too busy, too crammed with excess and the musical delivery always sounds warm and organic.

DAEDALUS is noticeably less dark than what DAAL was producing a decade ago. Releases like "Destruktive Actions Affect Livings" and "The Call Of The Witches" could be downright scary and tattered the nervous system with impending doom and dread. It also seems that the progressive electronic aspects of DAAL's overall sound have been expanded upon as well with an overall less emphasis on the heavier rock parts experienced on previous releases. DAAL's musical equation is simply changing around the ingredients from album to album and this time around a complex symphony of electronica seems to be the dominant force. Any way you slice it DAEDALUS is another excellent release by this great Italian tour de force. The tracks vary sufficiently to eschew tedium and the music is, as always, professionally delivered with the highest level of attention paid to every aspect of the album's hour-long playing time. In short, DAEDALUS is exactly what the doctor ordered for a progressively infused space rock album emerging in 2022. Looking forward to many more to come.