So where do I begin? This is a six-CD retrospective boxset of some of Sula Bassana’s music since 2006 containing nearly thirty tracks and beautiful presented in three gatefold sleeves, all in a hard box — this truly is a thing of wonder and a must-have for all Sula / Electric Moon fans as they are limited to 500 copies (a vinyl version is to be made later in the year by Pancromatic Records, and that will also be limited).
Because this is such a mammoth release, I am going to have to discard my usual track by track breakdown, otherwise this review will end up more like a novel. Instead I’m going to discuss each disc and give an overall look at the different music that each disc has to offer.
The first two discs contain Sula’s limited 2006 album Endless Winter plus three newly recorded bonus tracks. These pieces are played on guitar only and have at times a fairly ambient feel. “Fields Of Snow” is the opener and has the same vibe and feeling as “Wind On Water” by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. This is quite wonderful, and its slightly melancholy atmosphere conjures up vistas of crisp white landscapes stretching out as far as the eye can see on a chill winter’s morning. Guitars are looped and roll over themselves and cascade down upon your ears, taking you to a bliss-like state of mind. “Endless” starts off with voice-like sounds on the wind before a heavy riff comes in; this track is more psychedelic in feel than the previous pieces, and reaches for its cosmic other over its twenty-six minutes running time. Its here that you immerse yourself in Sula’s magical alchemy of spaced-out wonder and the slow build up to being lifted off world. CD2 starts with the fuzzed echoed tones of “Crystal Cold”, a track that has some wonderful lead guitar that spirals over the top of the piece like an arctic breeze. The piece is both otherworldly and beautiful as it slowly sends you to the land of hyper-nod. “Early Sun” has a contemplative mood as it rests more within the realm of a summers’ morning, rather than in the icy blasts of previous tracks. Its echoed guitar gives a tranquil feel and sends you off to a dreaming state of mind as the sun creeps up above the treeline. The final new track for this set is “Shadows”, a contemplative piece that put me in mind of some of Suzuki Junzo’s work with its haunting guitar lines.CDs 3 and 4 cover a small-run CDR-only album from 2009 called Silent Music, obviously with some bonus unreleased material in there as well. “Dark Wood” is a quiet contemplative piece that again focuses mainly on echoed and looped guitar, although the album as a whole features synthesizers, flutes and sound bowls amongst its musical arsenal; the track is closer to some of Manuel Göttsching‘s work in its overall sound palette and the way the guitar tumbles over itself during the course of the piece.
Cymbals chime in “When Time Floats Backwards” like they are an introduction to some ancient ceremony that’s about to take place, and the sounds echo around like the music is taking place in some temple at the top of a mountain. The track has similar atmosphere to some of Eno’s work for the album On Land and David Sylvian’s ambient work on a track like ‘”Steel Cathedrals”; although when the Mellotron kicks in we also get a touch of Alpha Centauri-era Tangerine Dream. This is the joy of Sula’s work — it’s a melting pot of all these wonderful sounds, but also has the stamp of Mr Bassana all over the pieces. “Lost” on CD 4 has piano drifting through a landscape of reverb, and the same desert loneliness feel that Harold Budd brings to some of his works. The piece conjures up the same feelings of isolation and air of despair in its minor key in a slightly Erik Satie-esque mood, the kind of music you can stare out of a window and watch the seasons change, and somehow feel separated from other people’s reality in your own world. “Silent Music”’s guitar is again very slight and drifting, as notes tumble down like rain through the speakers; again, this is music to think to, to lose yourself in for a while that fills the room with its certain atmosphere, makes you ponder and step aside from the hectic day and find your own space.CD 5 contains split releases that Sula has done with other artists, so most of these tend to be shorter than the tracks presented on the other four discs. The first four tracks are from a split LP with Vibravoid from 2003 and are outstanding. “The End Of The World” sees Mr Bassana in full Dukes Of Stratosphear psychedelic mode with a slight dose of Syd Barrett as a side order; and it’s even a bit funky as well. “Blow That Trip” is full of pulsating synths and far-out vocals, and has far more of a trance aspect to it — it sounds spacey and wonderful, like it’s just in the chill-out zone of a Goa rave-up.
Tracks five to seven come from a 20014 split LP with 3AM. “Disappear” has a kind of Gary Numan-esque synthetic pulse rhythm to it, overlaid by guitars, reminiscent of David Bowie and Eno’s Low period in its overall feel as it has a starker ambience than the tracks that proceeded it. “Smoof” carries on with a similar industrial feel in its textures, and its downward spiralling synth line here again feels slightly melancholy as Sula steps away from the full-blown psychedelic guitar-god role. In the end this is another hauntingly beautiful piece that stays with you long after the track has finished and would make a great soundtrack. CD 6 is made up of previously unreleased wig-out freakbeat tracks from the last ten years. “Silver Smurfer” sounds like an Agitation Free jam that’s been slightly locked in mystical India; this would be great live and takes me back to 1974, when this kind of music came into the UK and taught us a different way to cosmically freak out. “Echolot” has pounding scatter beat overlaid with lots of synths and straddles a fine line between Zanov’s work and that of more recent electronic artists such as Brain Machine. “Camembeat Electrash” has an early Ralf & Florian Kraftwerk feel to its electronic beat and swirling synth chords.The big number on this disc is the eighteen-minute “Space Maze”, a magnum opus and exactly the right way to end this boxset. Swirling synths take us on a cosmic voyage to the outer limits beyond the solar winds, into deep space. The rhythm picks up pace and slowly takes us further on our journey. This is piece of pure space music to get you tripping the light fantastic as synth engines push the music forward, and your mind gets lost in the oblivion of the vast universe.
It has taken a year to put this boxset together, and the love and attention that’s been given it is well worth the money alone. The music is diverse and for each track I’ve discussed, I could have talked about another in equal glowing terms. But the price of admission is that you get to discover all this wonderful different music for yourself — or just let five and half hours of beautiful, blissful music wash over you in one sitting. There is a lot to take in here, but it’s great to dip into one disc at a time too and immerse yourself in another world for an hour. Now we have to wait for The Box Volume 2 — or even the Electric Moon box of outtakes and splits, etc; now, wouldn’t that be something?-Gary Parsons-
