REVIEWS

REVIEWS: 11/28/20

"The fifty-three minutes of Prism Of The Present are unsettling indeed. From the opening wavering notes of 'As Long As Grass Grows' there is little escape from the uncomfortable vibe. Notes stumble into each other, drum beats are splintered and the background sways awkwardly. Even the guitars that introduce 'Symbol Bridge' appear to be tumbling down a slope. They fall in a continuous loop, making no progress as dark droning clouds in the background threaten grudgingly. There really is no interlude from the darkness. 'Permian Basin Boogie' is as far from a boogie as you can imagine, never being able to build on shifting foundations, while 'Old Lodge Skins' is a melancholic drone that breaks down under pressure. 'Burns Red In The Sun' is the shortest song here, just under two and a half minutes of praying to deaf gods, and the answer to 'May There Be A Road' will never be found as the question is never asked with any clarity; the dislocation is all-encompassing and rational thought impossible. Despite knocking at doors and begging for release, we are lost on an ever-circling journey with no seeming hope of arriving anywhere near redemption. The drums on the seven-minute 'A Holy Place' are some of the bleakest we have heard and the wavering collapse of 'Pale Flower' simply drips sadness. Closer 'Fire On The Plains' is the odd one out here, almost coherent with hints of classicism, and possibly delivering a faint glimmer of hope. There are ten tracks on the cassette, but a bonus eleventh on the download, with 'Hand Woven Silk' rumbling and scraping and reintroducing the tension. Once again everything is stretched to breaking point. If you have listened to Pärk's work before you will know that he is capable of producing the lightest of touches that can make his music soar. This makes this achievement all the more remarkable as Prism Of The Present is unremittingly dark and intrinsically disturbing. We have yet to hear any work that captures the mood of the year so tellingly. Powerful in the extreme." - Isolation Records (UK), November 2020.

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"Well this is a surprise. Ever since the release of the Netflix Corporation’s Stranger Things there’s been an awful deluge of music trying to its very best to get fans of the show to buy it. Believe me, I work in a record store, there’s way too much of the stuff. So when I say, I quite like this album that sounds a bit like the Netflix Corporation’s Stranger Things soundtrack, I mean it.

Patrick R. Pärk is a synth noodler based out of Colorado, and he is the man responsible for this great shock of mine. His album, ‘Library Sounds’ is pitched as being “music for TV, radio, film, musical illustrations” which should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from it, though it could probably do with the addition of “from the 80s”. Wobbly synthesiser instrumentals that gently churn as though they’re tracking some tense moment on the screen, that grow and change to match some imaginary script, that set the mood for a radio play that doesn’t exist.

Like much of the music that is for the half remembered 80s there’s always something sinister lying underneath. ‘Library Sounds’ fits very comfortably with the current British trend of pastoral psychedelia, which too revels all that is horrifying and unspoken. ‘Plains II’ exemplifies this. What at first starts as a calm relaxing stroll, slowly starts become confusing and almost frightening.
I think the difference between Pärk’s work and those of his contemporaries are his sense of restraint and timing. He knows how to build tension, and when release finally comes, it’s earned." - Norman Records, 2018.

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"A true hark back to the Seventies! That is what Denver, Colorado composer/electronics man Patrick R. Pärk has come up with on his debut Library Sounds. Library music was certainly invented earlier that the Seventies, but it is the decade when it was in full swing. It usually meant incidental music, recorded to be used with film soundtracks, radio shows, commercials…

But then Park adds another Seventies phenomenon – German electronic music, then dubbed ‘synthesiser rock’, although its then best-known exponent, Tangerine Dream, had very intentions to rock. Still, in contrast to library music, they made, and still make a bundle of money on it.

These days, both phenomena are known just as ambient, and ambient(s) is what Park is after. Coming up with this release on a Portuguese cassette label back in 2017 with a dazzling number of 50 tapes first, Park’s soundscapes got the attention of the UK label Castles in Space, who revived it on vinyl.
Smartly, the label added 8 tracks to 12 original ones for the digital release. Smartly, because, like those original Tangerine Dream or very early Popol Vuh albums, Parks comes with an almost never-ending, shifting loop of electronic loops, something The Orb or Ultramarine perfected back in The Nineties when this string of electronics came back into vogue. Splitting these tracks into one would be a shame, but taking out snippets for your documentary or a Facebook spot is a dream.

And it seems that is exactly what Park was aiming for, like passing through scenery that only shifts for a moment and then it is gone. Park has not only sussed completely all those sounds that have influenced him, but is also adept at creating dreamscapes, or “ambient desert soundscapes” as he calls them. Excellent for a lazy afternoon with your headphones on. You should mark it as such in your ‘library’." - Echoes & Dust, 2018.

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"Songs for Healing is a certain Mr Kosmonaut Man asking the stars for some help in healing his daughter, who recently got leukemia and is being saved by the best dad in the world, making the most difficult music in the world (possibly) to do so. This is the second thing I’ve seen in her benefit from Kosmo, so I think he knows what he’s doing.

Every time I see the name Kosmonaut I always think deep kosmische kraut psych synth music. Lots of fizzy held synth chords, lots of echo, lots of stupid noodling. But it’s always surprising when a brilliant fuzzy wall of textured sampling madness enters my ear cans, making the majority of ‘cosmic’ music look completely earthly in comparison. It’s out there, but doesn’t fall into most of the cliches of out-there electronic music, featuring fragile crumbly textures, dense fuzzed-out melodies, and even some quietly rhythmic elements. Oh, and some totally overwhelming dissonance too, but at least that’s reserved for a few choice moments. Very good tape.

If you’re interested, his daughter has a blog where she just chats and stuff, eventually confronting the meaning of life in this little excerpt I’ll leave you with: “Then’s there’s my big life question hmm … that’s a toughie I’ve got to say it’s What’s the meaning of life? So that’s it Bye for now!” - Amazing." - Norman Records, 2016.

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"The massive engines are tuned on for this ground vibrating drone burner by Kösmonaut. Processional percussion amid a fanfare of horns. The towering wall of noise pushing all sounds to extreme points of distance. An alien entourage of music is then drummed forth among harmonic ambient might.

Songs for Healing tackles a half an hour divided among eight numbered tracks. Patrick R. Pärk who is Kösmonaut, is simply a huge weight of aural pressure. Rumbling thought, flattening the sound space, then wise enough to let all things grow again. The second side of this cassette only exists as counterpoint to the first. The time comes when all complex processes, either natural or man made, end. Rebuilding occurs and is done beautifully well. Mr. Pärk hovers between extremes, in a protected alcove as the wind sweeps the outside wastelands. The listener sitting along side has the opportunity to discover their own sound vista as their ears gather the emitted vibrations. Tones are somehow majestically sparse at times, crafted from the talented offering of Patrick's skill. This beauty marches away on the last track allowing the tape to reverse and Kösmonaut to enter again.

This Kösmonaut release is out on the label These Are Not Records. This release and the preceding cassette titled Master Generator are both dedicated to Patrick R. Pärk's daughter Sevigny Aislin Pärk.
She has a blog you can check out and see how much love is in the Park family. You can also find a write up of Master Generator on the label A Giant Fern here.

Order a copy from These Are Not Records out of Scarsdale, New York. There is also one copy left on the Kösmonaut bandcamp page. Either way this is a very good composition and These Are Not Records artwork and packaging is beautiful. " - Lost In A Sea of Sound, 2016

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"Deep Distance is a side-label set up by Great Pop Supplement head honcho Dom as an outlet for his love of all things krauty and kosmische. The packaging is super minimal, in homage to Conrad Schnitzler’s mid-’70s private press series, with the outer cover and stickers all being plain blue and all the information coming in the form of multiple inserts of varying shapes and sizes. This LP is the label’s inaugural release, and is a suitably pumping and motorik piece of kraut drone tastiness that’s totally absorbing and is making me lose track of time (not the best thing to happen right in the middle of the Christmas rush when there’s a hundred things that need doing around the office). This monotonous mechanical chugging is the brainchild of Patrick R Park, whose ability to craft organic sounding pulsating loops of futuristic synth is not to be underestimated. For me this release is as textbook an example of the more techno-inflected side of modern kraut as CAVE’s ‘Neverendless’ is of its rockier side. Right on the button. This is a run of 250 so it’s the usual you snooze you lose situation." - Mike at Norman Records

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"Wow! This first installment on Great Pop Supplement's new imprint Deep Distance is one hell of a release to get things rolling. If they keep pumping out this kind of quality we're all looking to get some serious tunes coming our way.  "Kosmonaut 1" is filled with dark and hazy synth glimmer that melds in and out of ambient washes and motorik chatter.  Along with the usual suspects as and influence on this kind of thing we're hearing hints of some Phillip Glass arpeggiations upping the tension and giving way to trance inducing hypnosis.  Nothin' but synth-strumental glory here to lift you into the cosmos to ride along the rings of Saturn." - Permanent Records