HYPERBOREA

This album started with beautiful drones painting a large, clam and cold space, but I was not very pleased as the programmed electronic drum loops appeared. The ability to digest these depends mainly on person's taste for aesthetics I think. After listening for some time I started to get used to them, but some other even more irritating sounds emerged after these, and "No Man's Land" started to sound too much of the music used in old computer games. There were some funny patterns sounding Caribbean drums in the middle of the song though, but the programmed bass loop and the following themes start sound like an Axel Foley theme. This shouldn't be a surprise, as Tangerine Dream did lots of movie soundtracks during their career, especially at the 1980's. The first track ended dynamically to some funny congas. The second track was the title tune, having good melodies and a peaceful feeling, and now with much prettier sounds than the first track. The front cover's picture fits the atmospheres of this song exceptionally. As the theme with chords sounding of some bells arrives, a strong association of Vangelis is born. In the middle of the track some arctic winds bring forth another theme, following the style and quality of the beginning. The name of the third track "Cinnamon Road" suggest to some exotic influences, which can be heard on the melody clearly. This music reminds me of the works by Kitaro which I had heard as a kid. Sadly this could also be the music for a bonus level of some coin-up game of late 1980's, and this performance too was too difficult to bring down to a proper composed ending. Dramatic chords open the final and longest track on the album, called "Sphinx Lightning". There are some familiar echoes resembling their "Rubycon" album to be heard here. This is a quite pleasing track, though I'm not very fond of the drum loops. The later part is an ethereal, new age oriented beautiful sequence.

It's interesting to try something progressive out from the exotic 1980's. Though the two shorter tracks out of the four weren't very good, the two longer one's were much better, and they make this as an interesting album at some level, though not essential I think.