«An exciting journey to the stars, perfect for a night of observation»
By chance this record has come to my hands and just reading the titles of the songs I want to hear it. My love of astronomy and observing the night sky is allowing me to enjoy this good instrumental music in which I imagine watching a television documentary about its contents with music as soundtrack.
This is the third studio album of Widek, a Polish-born guitarist and sound engineer that he deals with all instruments and even the production and mixing in his own studio. A part of it has the support of several artists, usually on six strings, rounding the concept of the album.
«Journey To The Stars» is the continuation of «Outside The Universe» last year, but this time has passed the bar by adding environmental background tint that provides a feeling as if we were watching a movie. The musical style used is very close to most elementary progressive mixed with shades djent, most used for few years.
It begins with «Mira» a variable song making honor to its name. Mira is one of the most amazing stars for amateur astronomers, is variable category, meaning that its magnitude (brightness) varies by periods, that is, that sometimes is and sometimes not. The song emulates this definition very well to highlight the guitar-distortion suddenly as if a bulb is ignited. Jump to «Earthshine» to get in the place of those astronauts looking at Earth from the ISS, it is faster but without leaving the atmosphere with rhythm guitar that provides quiet court. Subsequently the guitar solo magnifies those views … It started well the album.
More progressive, similar to the style of Indians Skyharbor «Chara» is presented, honoring their meaning in mythology. Chara is with Asterion next to one of the hunting dogs that make up the constellation Canes Venatici near the Big Dipper. The song proceeds as if on a hunt we had come, first glimpsed the dam, runs to her and after a hard job gets her prize, all perfectly finally portrayed with Gru‘s guitar solo, another polish, who also works in the design of the cover.
Orion, the winter’s giant, the most impressive constellation of the northern hemisphere comes up big in «Orion II«, on halftime is softened but technically complicated and Aye‘s guitar solo makes us imagine the grandeur of its nebulous below belt, the M42, visible to the naked eye and impressive after a good magnifying lens.
The brief but intense «Nova» again allows us to mentally visualize process involving a star end his own life. For those who do not know, nova is the explosion of a small star, which is its end and the beginning of many more or nebula. This process is, first swells, then compressed and finally explodes. If we imagine that while listening to the disc will see that the choice of name is not a whim.
The drops slightly with interesting «Space Horizon» having no distortion and being too innovative and that due to its name, we can not make the idea of anything because we do not know what the limits of the universe, just a few quasars and blazars out there lost… But if suddenly comes a great song like «Sirius» it appears that it was just a break. Although starts as before, is more typical of progressive and includes dizzying pace with which to imagine that the star sky with star o stars. Yes, Sirius is the largest, reaching it from the belt of Orion, the star differs from Venus or Jupiter just being intermittent, because size is the same, its magnitude is less than zero, which makes it only.
«Parallax» is as the name suggests, a physical concept for calculating distances in space, complicated to use. The music is identical in that respect, very close to what we hear from bands like Scar Symmetry or Periphery, sharp rhythms with classical overtones. Owane only appears with a subtle but very sharp guitar solo too short for my liking.
Again another song appears calm, although in this case as pleasant pace is cheerful and totally away from being experimental, is pure rock. «Rana» which is not the animal, is opposite Mira of the most interesting stars in the northern sky, can be found near Orion, actually. The flagship song of the album comes in the form of «Canis Majoris» the dog of Orion whose main star is Sirius. Yes, it seems that the names have not been chosen at random, there is a history between them and that I wanted to show you. Musically it is exquisite, saying that the participation of Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry) plays hard to offer as his latest album, a great guitar solo with rhythmic biting who is put forward.
The end of the album comes with two songs dedicated to the effects of light in space and ways of celestial objects. I want to discuss them together because it does not know how to link them. It’s «Pillars Of Creation» and «Ion«, referring to the Eagle Nebula (M16) in which the Hubble detected three «together» columns were named as The Pillars of Creation. They are detected three colors: red (ionization by sulfur), blue (for the doubly ionized oxygen) and green (for hydrogen). Becoming the most widespread image of space, this duo of songs shows that only aurally spectacular, slow and atmospheric court. To reach climax with «Ion«, the only with lyrics, played by Ricky Davenport. Very reminiscent of the style used by TesseracT in the slow parts or Monuments in the most aggressive.
The disc ends but I’m sure will come in other editions with more stories to offer this style. The note that I give is 8.9/10.
Songs
1. Mira
2. Earthshine
3. Chara
4. Orion II
5. Nova
6. Space Horizon
7. Sirius
8. Parallax
9. Rana
10. Canis Majoris
11. Pillars Of Creation
12. Ion
Widek
Maciej Dawidek – Guitars, bass, drums, sinths
Colaborations
Chris Letchford – guitar solo in Mira
Plini – guitar solo in Earthshine
Gru – guitar solo in Chara
Sithu Aye – guitar solo in Orion II
Owane – guitar solo in Parallax
Per Nilsson – guitar solo in Canis Majoris
Ricky Davenport – voice in Ion
