MAAT LANDER - Seasons of Space (Book #2)

9 songs
56:23 minutes
***** ***
Clostridium

Bandpage

Exactly one year after Season Of Space (Book #1), Russian psychedelic space rock trio Maat Lander is back with its successor Book #2. Consisting of musicians from Vespero and The Re-Stoned, you wonder how the three musicians find the time to release every year at least one album under the name Maat Lander, considering that Vespero released this year alone already three albums, and The Re-Stoned also two albums!

Don’t expect any big deviations from the first part of the Seasons of Space series. The vinyl version consists of six long tracks and a short instrumental, with the CD and digital version adding another long track and a short instrumental. While the songs are all between seven and ten minutes long, and don’t really come with hum-along parts, the trio took well care to distribute their material in a way that each half of the record contains a little bit of everything. The opener Realm Of The Firelimbies, at six minutes and fifty-one seconds the shortest regular piece on the album, shows Maat Lander from its most typical side. Psychedelic electronica, vintage sequencers and crunchy space rock guitars are meeting in a euphoric bonfire of bliss. The following There, Where The Crystal Image Of The Whole Space Dwells is a more subdued track, and could maybe even be called a ballad. Its combination of meandering guitar solos and all-embracing synth carpets make for a pleasant spacey journey. Galaxy Passage #4 is a half-minute short interlude with acoustic guitar and beeping synths, before the nearly ten-minute-long Meteors Serenade ends the first half with a hypnotic piece of repetition that sounds like Maurice Ravel’s Bolero on particularly potent acid.

The album’s second half begins with Klaus, I’m Lost Among The Molecules, an obvious reference to German ambient kraut pioneer Klaus Schulze. This track has the same mission as the opener: showing the band from its most diverse side. Quantum Ballad is another ballad, and where often rock musicians fail at this by becoming too cheesy, Maat Lander show this time that their ballads are masterful examples of melancholy. The regular part of the album ends with the nearly ten-minute-long Space Scum, where the band is acting at their most hard rocking so far, channelling the spirit of the likes of Hawkwind and Led Zeppelin. Maybe that’s the influence of The Re-Stoned. Bonus tracks are another short instrumental, Galaxy Passage #5, and The Asteroid Of Living Machinery, which is surprisingly catchy for a mere bonus track.

Season Of Space (Book #2) is not necessarily better than Book #1, but it is more concise, which helps the listener to keep a better overview. Another highlight is, like so far on every release of this band, the ultra-colourful cover artwork which is watercolouring at its most freaked out! Fans of vintage psychedelic space rock will have to add this exceptional album to their collection.