A very interesting debut album by German outfit, Cydonia.
The name Cydonia comes from a region on Mars best known for the “Face on Mars”. The band themselves hail from Freiberg in Germany and Stations is their debut album. The personnel are Michael Bernauer on vocals, Rainer Dück on guitars, Dirk Fenchel on drums, Oliver Gerike on bass & acoustic guitars, and Daniel Perrey on keyboards.
The album is interesting if nothing else for the fact that it contains two live recordings in addition to the first three studio tracks, something of a rarity in a debut work to be sure. In fact, their website details that they have been a live act since 2014, and they came to my notice from a positive review elsewhere and I gave them a few spins on their Bandcamp page at https://cydoniaprog.bandcamp.com/album/album-stations-2022
I am glad I did. This is a very good album, although I was sceptical about my views listening to the first few bars of Way to Cydonia, which are keyboard-led retro-prog wrought large, just about, as regular readers know, my biggest pet hate in music. Fortunately, what follows is wonderful and, above all else, original – precisely, then, the type of music this website exists to promote.
So, the opening track. After the Emerson inspired opening, Dück takes centre stage with a decent set of riffs. Just short of a minute in, the main track begins, heralded by a deep bass riff. Bernauer has a distinctive and expressive voice, and all the band tell the song journey very well, with delicate piano, acoustic guitar, and a rhythm section underpinning it all. This song is a sort of spacey musical travelogue, and there is a definite warmth present, especially when the guitar is at the forefront – some of these licks are quite lovely and clearly influenced, without being derivative, by Steven Rothery primarily. The closing passage is presaged by a thoughtful duet between vocals, with some nice interplay between lead and backing, and a lead piano before the full band re-enter and provide for an expansive close, with its strength lying in its rock sensibilities.
The second track is the intriguingly named Where is the Silence? More lush piano starts proceedings off, before some rich vocals enter, with the words about where the silence is which sets you free, where brooding only brings pain. With all this, the piano and orchestration are quite lovely alongside some impressive vocal harmonies and halfway through a rich guitar overlay. This is a lovely piece of music which strikes me as being an exercise in catharsis with the “I’ll be alright” and “I’ll decide where to go” at the end. I think at the close of 2023, this track will be a contender for a “thoughtful track of the year” award on the website.
It is, though, fair to say that the centrepiece of the album is the fourteen-plus minute five-part epic, Union of Souls.
First part, Demons, starts as a thoughtful duet between acoustic guitar and voice exhorting the evil to stay away, and when electric guitar comes in and combined with scream, there is a sense of a cinematic soundtrack. The close is reminiscent of the Edison’s Children atmospheric work before the second instalment, Looking Through the Gateway, commences with acoustic guitar and some interesting key sounds. There follows a huge bass riff, which stays throughout the passage, underneath a jazzy key and drum riff before the electric guitar rises above this with some gorgeous notes. This instrumental section is never less than interesting.
Some quite dark vocals introduce The Journey, a passage which strikes me as a meditation on moving forward after life to what follows. The music itself reflects this when it picks up the tempo markedly, with some swirling keys rising above some dark chords underneath. Eleven minutes in, the return of those uplifting guitar chords is joyful, and a reflection on a road which we really shouldn’t be afraid of.
Eywa is connected to Avatar, Cameron’s masterful film, and is a guiding deity. We close this wonderful piece with Connected, and the music to me perfectly reflects the sense that life and the universal force are intimately at one. This is a very positive, life affirming epic piece of music and an early favourite of 2023.
The first of the two live pieces is Caravan of Slaves. I must admit that when I first heard the crowd “whoop”, I was reticent, because the studio intensity of what preceded it was so enjoyable. Any such doubts are quickly expunged though, with the eastern promise of the drum roll and keyboards washing over you, and you envision the caravans rolling across the desert sands with their load of unfortunates heading towards an uncertain fate. The rumbling bass which introduces the second movement of this is deliciously dark before we get a guitar bringing forward a more up-tempo journey. The lead guitar, especially, followed by a frenetic keyboard highlight the emotion of the captives very well with some urgency, with the rhythm section setting a blistering pace. As an ensemble musical piece, Caravan of Souls delivers in spades.
The album closer is Already There. The end of the musical journey? The otherworldly lyrics talk about being lost in the ocean of loneliness, drowning many light years from home, and floating between worlds sitting in his tin can (a la Bowie). The drifting on the wings of time on a new beginning, accompanied by a lush guitar riff, is space psych rock personified, and the live performance is really very strong.
Stations is a very strong and enjoyable album and comes highly recommended as a listen for something a little bit different. Certainly, to these ears, it avoids falling into the trap of stereotypical “space rock” (at times especially on the closing track, the Floydian influence is strong, but the originality always reasserts itself) and introduces clear personal elements into the journey. It is never anything less than well performed and interesting.