Review: Surya Kris Peters - Holy Holy Holy

A wee bit excited when this dropped through my virtual letterbox! Surya Kris Peter's debut album, 'The Hermit' is hands down my favourite of this year (spoiler!) and so news of a sophomore album was met with much whooping and leaping with joy...well, not literally of course, but you get my drift. Like 'The Hermit', 'Holy Holy Holy' is culled from 2 of Peter's previous EPs ('Schorfheide Blues' & 'Modular Mono Logic', both available on a 'Name Your Price' basis on the Electric Magic Bandcamp page here.) And also, like 'The Hermit', it is full of some of the most sublime kosmische / electronica you will hear, and a million miles away from his output as part of the fuzzy, stoner/psych Samsara Blues Experiment.

The first five tracks are taken from the 'Schorfheide Blues' EP, starting with ‘Leise Versprechen’ - a lovely slice of electronica bordering on ambient...like a kosmische Brian Eno. It is blissful, tranquil and so very rich in atmosphere. ‘Tanz der Wasserläufer’ sees the mood lift and the ethos is more Tangerine Dream than Eno. The tremulous drone and lush analogue electronica is straight from the Berlin School. This is where Peter's solo work is at it's best...the genuine and heartfelt nods to his kosmische forefathers...this is truly great stuff. We are woken from our reverie with a blast of straight up stoner riffs courtesy of 'Schorfheide Blues'. The man himself draws comparison with the Desert Sessions and who am I to disagree! Despite its appearance seeming somewhat incongruous, it actually works very well...it draws the listener back to earth from their cosmic, meditative wanderings and despite it being very guitar based and very fuzzy, it still manages to engender an atmosphere..the introduction of the synths towards the end gives it a krautrock feel and so slots in nicely in this collection. ‘Soirée à Lunéville’ is the soundtrack of a film that doesn't exist...it has the moody feel of a European arthouse movie from the seventies - part Giallo, part Mancini and part Nicolai...wonderful. 'Nachtschattenspleen' ('Night Shadows') completes the first side and is another moody number. It still has a touch of the kosmische but with a more experimental, abstract bent. It has a bubbling, analogue quality that lends it a 'retro' feel but the structure and composition is definitely of the now. Side 2 is made up of a twenty minute cut from the 'Modular Mono Logic' EP, 'Pt​.​1: Gong Zong / Rumba Elektronika / All​-​Ein​-​Sein'. It is a slow building cosmic synth jam with more analogue loveliness. It harks back to the true masters of the genre - Edgar Froese, Manuel Göttsching etc. Over the course of its twenty minutes, the track rises and falls...the ebb of the pulsing rhythm is hypnotic to the point of total transcendence. If you are a fan of electronica/kosmische then this one twenty minute track is like a precis of an entire record collection. It all has a touch of genius about it.

Surya Kris Peters has produced 2 of the best albums I've ever heard...and that's not something I say lightly. My love of Tangerine Dream, and kosmische in general, has been an ever present ever since I first became 'interested' in music and has lasted intact through my various goth, punk, grebo phases (well, we were all young once eh?) and Peters' solo output is up there with my favourite TD albums.....he is that good. I stand in awe! Luckily, this is not released until January 2017 and so I do not have to wrestle with my Top 10 for this year....but it ensures that next year will start with an album that will be hard to surpass, in my eyes, all year. It will be available in a limited edition run of 200 copies on black vinyl housed in a silkscreened sleeve via Electric Magic. No news on pre-orders just yet but rest assured as soon as they are announced I will shout about it from the highest rooftops.