Sundaze (30)

Hello, Sundaze again, today with 2 different ambient styles, the Swedish rational coolheaded Twice A Man even go for 'classical' here, the second and third part stem from an earlier period. After on unhappy partnership with a label, they returned to Yellow Ltd with Figaro - Thorsten - Emilia........Astralasia, started off as a side project but has since overshadowed its long defunct parent band, they've released a dozen albums and as many EP's the last 18 years, and kept developping along the way. Whatever Happened To Utopia ? is their fourth album ( this one came with a bonus EP), it is rather Orb inspired andambiient tinged, obviously for a Sundaze...

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Twice A Man - Figaro - Thorsten - Emilia ( 92 ^ 99mb)

Cosmic Overdose (Karl Gasleben, Dan Söderqvist) had released two fantastic albums in Sweden, then morphed into Twice a Man. While the progression seemed logical, at the time it was a major disappointment. Gone were the hard electronic drones and electric guitars of the "space punks" (as they were called back then. What was left was this, a very light, ambient sound, somewhat in advance of everything else. I've posted their first albumTwice A Man - Music For Girls here.


Twice A Man have been around since 1981, from the start more like an ordinary musicgroup in the syntheziser genre, but has since the middle of the eighties become a projectgroup, who cooperate with artists from other fields such as film, theater and dance. During the years Twice A Man has been in existence they have made 15 CD/LP, 7 theatre productions, 3 filmmusic productions and many tours and concerts all over Europe.

Twice A Mans interest to visualize their music has been one of the characteristics of the group and they appear as pioneers in the context of using advanced technique with an artistic expression. The computer as a tool or an instrument have played a key role during the last years, except for the music, now also in graphics. Unfortunately they lacked the foresight to keep control over their work and much of it has been stalled at now defunct labels, therfore getting hold of their work is very difficult. Second hand or dumpstores likely offer the best chance to find any of their work, at least outside Sweden. No such thing for their latest release earlier this year, Clouds". Online best choice Twice A Man @ Amazon.De thats the German Amazon .



Figaro
1 - Piece #1 For Virtual Orchestra (2:44)
2 - Piece #2 For Virtual Orchestra (2:33)
3 - Piece #3 For Virtual Orchestra (0:45)
4 - Piece #4 For Virtual Orchestra (1:24)
5 - Piece #5 For Virtual Orchestra (0:38)
6 - Piece #6 For Virtual Orchestra (1:00)
7 - Piece #7 For Virtual Orchestra (1:42)
8 - Piece #8 For Virtual Orchestra (2:54)
9 - Piece #9 For Virtual Orchestra (7:07)
Emilia
10 - Ghosts / The Dance Of Emilia (2:58)
11 - Seduction In Church (3:04)
12 - Marinelli's Plot (5:34)
13 - Conspiracy (1:40)
Thorsten
14 - The Death Of Emilia (2:52)
15 - Troubled By A Fallen Leaf (4:01)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Astralasia - Whatever Happened To Utopia ? 1 (94, 104min ^ 197mb)

Astralasia are one of the leading artists on the global trance scene and yet are relatively unknown in mainstream clubland. They are old friends of Whirl-Y-Gig and form the backbone of the Magick Eye record label. Astralasia was founded by Marc Swordfish, as an Ambient-Dub side-project to the psychedelic pop/rock group Magic Mushroom Band, with members taking part in both groups. Astralasia soon began to explore the dancefloor space as well, and while the Magic Mushroom Band has been dormant since 1995, Astralasia is still active.

After a self-titled debut album on the miniscule Fungus label, Astralasia moved to the Magick Eye label, which issued as its first release the band's follow-up, 1992's The Politics of Ecstasy. Three albums down the road, Astralasia released the compilation Astralogy, and then signed an American deal with the industrial label Cleopatra, which issued The Space Between in late 1996 and then two albums in 1997: Seven Pointed Star and Seven by Seven. One year later, Astralasia released their eighth album in as many years, White Bird. It again moved Astralasia into new teritory with a greater vocal content in much of the material, although keeping with the hard trance vibe. This was followed by a long three year silence in which no new material was released, with only handful of live appearances. In 2001, Astralasia's tenth long player, titled 'Somewhere Something', was released on Transient Records. Another long silence ensued ... and then, when we were least expecting it ... Astralasia ran 'Away with the Fairies'. New double CD out May 2006.The 2006 new line up is as follows: Giles Boulton (MC and Dub vocals), Marc Swordfish (producer, programming and arranging), Wayne Twining (partner, 303 programming), Peter Pracownik (slide/lead guitars), Stevie B (sax and percussion), and Feebe (flute , fiddle, dancer & some vocals).



(98mb)

01 - Astral Navigation (7:28)
02 - Genesis – The Spark Of Life (7:09)
03 - Seven Suns (10:16)
04 - Storm In A Bong Dowl (8:18)
05 - Utopian Biosphere (12:38)
06 - Deconstruction (1) (8:33)
07 - Ignarus (11:20)
08 - Aphasia (8:57)
bonus ep
09 - And In A Few Moments (5:44)
10 - A.N.D.E. (part 1) (8:23)
11 - A.N.D.E. (part 2) (7:14)
12 - ....And Finally (8:03)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****
All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !