Kryptästhesie - Inner Whirl
Cat No: DELEC CD 038
Release Date: 7th May 1996
[Track Listing] [Lyrics]
[Credits] [Reviews]
[Kryptästhesie Home Page]
Track Listing
- Flying Saucers - 4:21 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Fausto: Bass, Maurizio: Electric Guitar, Romeo: Drums, Cosmo: Percussion..
- Watching The Sky - 4:28 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Bass, Fausto: Acoustic Guitar, Maurizio: Electric Guitar, Romeo: Percussion, Cosma: Percussion, Nicola: Saxaphone.
- The Tree - 12:24 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Fausto: Bass, Maurizio: Synthesisers, Romeo: Drums.
- The Intruder - 2:31 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Bass, Vocals, Fausto: Acoustic Guitars, Maurizio: Synthesisers, Romeo: Drums.
- An Evening Following A Cuttle-Fish - 3:46 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Fausto: Bass, Maurizio: Electric Guitar, Romeo: Drums.
- Secret Power - 3:47 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Vocals, Fausto: Acoustic Guitar, Maurizio: Synthesisers, Romeo: Percussion, Cosma: Percussion.
- Red Shift - 4:37 (Kryptästhesie) Dario: Bass, Fausto: Electric Guitars, Maurizio: Synthesisers, Romeo: Drums, Cosmo: Percussion.
- Chocolate Queen - 5:18 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Fausto: Bass, Maurizio: Electric Guitar, Romeo: Drums.
- Pictor H.H. - 3:16 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Fausto: Electric Guitar, Maurizio: Electric Guitar, Piano, Romeo: Percussion, Cosma: Percussion, Nicola: Saxophone.
- Then My Left Eye Began Again - 5:15 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Fausto: Bass, Maurizio: Electric Guitar, Synthesisers, Romeo: Drums.
- Enigma - 2:46 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Vocals, Fausto: Acoustic Guitar, Nicola: Saxophone.
- His Golden Guitar - 6:54 (Kryptästhesie) - lyric Dario: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Fausto: Bass, Maurizio: Electric Guitar, Synthesisers, Romeo: Drums.
Lyrics
When I was a young guy
I used to spend hours at the window
Looking at the passage
Of the flying saucers
And hid myself behind the curtain
For fear of being seen by the aliens
And hid myself behind the curtain
For fear of being seen
By the schoolfellows
From the pinewood covered with snow
The barking of the dogs evaporates
And climbs up to the top
Of the frozen hill
As if it was
The breath itself of winter
Knocking at the gates
Of a moonless night
I look around
And find myself just there
The sky is impresed
With wooden lies
And I'm watching the sky.
Every tree is alone
Even if it dwells in the thickest forest
And throws its silent shadow
If it does not rain.
Like an intruder
I roam about the library
As trembling as a whirl
And I knew where that whirl was
Because that whirl was just me
Then I turned my back to the sirens
And dived all by myself
Into the blood of town
And I knew where that blood ran
Because that blood was just me
Overhead a neraly full moon
And raving outrageous leaves
Foretold no fog - all night long -
But in a place
And I knew where that place was
Because that place was just me.
An Evening Following A Cuttle-Fish
We try and try and try
Though often miss the point
And still move on and on
According to the sun
Because nothing is better or worse
And nothing else ought to be said
Of course
Good fortune is served
An evanescent dish
An evening following a cuttle-fish.
Wide is the ocean
Endless the sky
If that place exists
You know I'll be there
You are my secret power
You are my dangerous sweetheart
From a corner in the shade
You make me evaporate
What's in your heaven?
What's in your hell?
We're learning to walk
On the surface of thought.
What do you do by this side of the morning?
What do you do hand in hand with your pain?
Are you waiting
For the inevitable "someone to come"?
You know if I've tried
But I'm not the kind of man you pretend
Where have you been chocolate queen?
A distant town blows
Its noise across the nerves
And the pain we feel
Is the same that feeds the whole world.
Hermann sat on his favourite chair
Painting houses in the afternoon
Winding indigo overhead
Red and prussian blue stars he met
Words turn into freakish daughters
And tigers vanish into drops of water
To be the swan to be the flower
To be the fire inside of lovers
To be this one in flesh and bones
To be the liar a child of nowhere
And taste a flavoured cup of morning
And light the sun of the inner learning
Someone is moving someone is waiting
Our Hermann is back to his favourite painting
Winding indigo overhead
Red and prussian blue the stars he met.
When I close my left eye
With the help of my right one
I see half of the sky
As if it enough to begin again
There's a hole in the sky
Now dies a star inside my left eye.
I will prefer the enigma of the silence
To the body's sour taste
Even when the snake of doubt
Will make me a slave to a new thirst
And I'll be able to find out a thin disorder
Which will separate our cells
With biological trepidation.
In the space between us
I shake my head in time
The spirals and the waves
The spirals and the waves
As the atmosphere grows
Arises his motherly air
And his golden guitar
His golden guitar.
Credits
Recorded and mixed at Bips Studio (Milano) April 1994.
Engineered by Nicola Calgari who also played saxophone on "Enigma", "Pictor H.H." and "Watching The Sky".
Cover and booklet by Kryptästhesie - Albe Enrico.
All songs by ryptasthesie and published by Delerium Music.
Lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Delerium Music.
Press Reviews
- Rockerilla, June 1996.
- Progression, Summer 1996.
- Expose, Spring - Summer 1996.
- Hawk - U.S. Time & Space, No. 5, 1996.
- Crohinga Well, July 1996.
- Gibraltar, July 1996.
Rockerilla
One of the most interesting labels for what concerns the propogation of sonic explosions relative to the boundless psychedelic planet, Delerium from England, publishes the new album by one of the bands showing the best ability in the recent past, in coupling freedom of expression to solid aesthetic and musical sway. We're obviously referring to Kryptästhesie, the magical mystery combo based somewhere near Lecco, who have ensured themselves a real international reputation, not only with their double album of four years ago - namely Shaken at the Sun, but through participating on compilations, giving concerts and self producing a 10" some months ago - pure psychoactive energy to be enjoyed with care and meditation. Now this Inner Whirl really marks a new winning post for the band, showing a path that Dario (vocals & guitars), Fausto (acoustic guitar and bass), Maurizio (keyboards), Romeo (drums) and Cosma (percussion) follow with ascending progressions and sweet interactive blending. Only by abandoning the hinderance of rationality and by being prepared to plunge your senses wide open into the coils of these sounds will you be able to catch the real essence of kryptasthetic musical height, endlessley suspended between the sky - the initial swirl preceding the 'flying saucers' vision, the long and metaphysical existential invocation ot 'The Tree', the cosmic horse ride of 'An Evening Following...', and the Earth - the rural notes which start 'Watching The Sky', the unusual love song 'Secret Power', and the stabbing in it's own way 'The Intruder'.
Their ideas look more sharply focused, helped with a more accurate production with respect to their previous ones - here Kryptästhesie really demonstrate to be a unique body moving in perfect harmony to give us musical moments far from the cliches. Thus it is difficult to define in such a limited space a work founding it's very reason to exist in expansion and multidimensional research. The cultured fans will find 'tentacular' streaks, some German touch, or even subdued folk roots, maybe along progressive trails. On our part, more simply, we can only rank Inner Whirl as a further opal worthy to adorn the present day universal psychedelia, a landing place, of course not only on a national basis, for a music that dares to smash and surpass barriers.
Progression
Kryptästhesie offers up prog-space-metal with an Italian influence. Inner Whirl is a mixed bag. A song like "Watching The Sky" goes exactly nowhere, while a number like "The Tree" is a facinating exploration of sounds and ideas.
The musicianship is totally flawless, with most members seamlessly switching from one instrument to another over the course of 12 tracks. Ballads clearly are not this band's strong suit, but harder driving stuff like "An Evening Following A Cuttlefish" falls rather pleasantly between Hawkwind and Can. Definitely Worthwile.
Expose
This is the first regular album on the Delerium label for this Italian band (though several private cassettes, two singles and a double-LP on other labels date back to the mid eighties), a five piece with guests, who play what might be called progressive underground space rock, using guitars (electric and acoustic), bass, drums, percussion, synths and saxes. If that sounds a little like Hawkwind's instrumentation, then you're on the right path. A few of the twelve tracks on here recall Hawkwind's punky agressive edge (most notably "An Evening Following A Cuttlefish" and "Golden Guitar"), where driving snarly space guitars are overlaid with swirling synth effects and near-shouted vocals. Other tunes like "Red Shift" and the twelve minute "The Tree" are more electronically propelled, recalling the likes of Ozric Tentacles and other more techno-influenced bands. And yet another side of the band that seems to surface regularly is a more acoustic - even folky world influenced modal sound employing guitar, tablas and a sitar, with more integral vocals. Of course Kryptästhesie is first and foremost a psych band, so many of these more laid back acoustic tunes are treated to liberal doses of psychedelic synth dweedling and effected guitars, and there are those occasional bizarre and unexpected twists that surface in most of the tunes. A solid effort that should appeal to Hawkfans and Ozric heads, as well as more acoustic oriented psych fans of bands like Ghost.
Hawk - U.S. Time & Space
This disc has a wonderful blend of great lyrics, great vocals, seriously excellent psych guitar and is off beat just enough for my blood. The twelve tracks work well as a whole unit and there is notable cohesion. Just the right amount of urgency in the vocals - more than a good measure of chaos to the song structure - I can't quite put my finger on a proper comparison of this band to anyone else so I guess this means that they are pretty original. Kryptästhesie is a band that I'm going to pay quite a bit of attention to from now on.
Crohinga Well
Kryptästhesie is one of Italy's best psychedelic bands of the nineties (although they have existed since December 1984). So far, they've released two cassettes, a 7" single, one double LP and a 10" EP. Most people will undoubtedly best remember their "Shaken At The Sun" double LP from 1992, which showed a brilliant display of psychedelic rock / folk / garage / ethnic music throughout it's four sides. Since then their music has become more fluent, ambient and open, resulting in a sixth group member, percussionist Cosma. The rest of the personnel file reads as follows : Giovanni (various ethinc instruments), Romeo (drums), Fausto (guitar), Dario (vocals, guitar and bass) and Maurizio (keyboards). Their long awaited second album "Inner Whirl" is bound to stir up as many words of praise as their first one, because the musical skills of Kryptästhesie have grown and matured over the years. "Inner Whirl" balances gently between the heavy fuzzed up guitar psych ("Flying Saucers", "Chocolate Queen", "Then My Left Eye Began Again" and "His Golden Guitar"), stoned and gentle folk psych ("Watching The Sky", "The Intruder", "Secret Power", "Pictor H.H." and "Enigma"), Hawkwindish space rock ("An Evening Following A Cuttlefish") and long ambient / cosmic jams ("The Tree"). This is a breathtaking psychedelic album without one weak moment: one of Europe's best for the moment. "Inner Whirl" is a CD only release of 60 minutes.
Gibraltar
I do believe Kryptasthesie are the first modern Italian psych band I have heard. Kryptasthesie are a quarted of Dario (guitars, bass, vocals), Fausto (bass, acoustic guitar), Maurizio (synthesizers, guitar) and Romeo (drums), occasionally supported by a friend or two. Inner Whirl opens with Flying Saucers, an intense guitar/vocal piece in the vein of Sundial. Next is Watching The Sky with a variety of hand percussion, sax and acoustic guitar. It almost sounds like some mellow, mid-period Amon Duul II. The Intruder and Secret Power are similar. After Watching The Sky comes the only long track, the 12 minute The Tree. Here, the "Inner" really begins to "Whirl", with swirling synth lines that recall Rick Wright (circa Wish You Were Here) or Tim Blake (circa You), but Maurizio often ventures into unexpected areas throughout this track. Keeping a train of thought during this song can be very difficult. High intensity returns with An Evening Following Cuttle-Fish with vocals that remind of Hawkwind. The pace of the entire album follows this pattern, nebulous clouds of keyboards penetrated by guitar-driven intersellar engines. Particularly good was the instrumental Red Shift. Eleven of the twelve songs have English-lyric vocals, although lyrics of The Tree amounts to only four lines. To my mind, the vocals occasionally worked well (The Tree) and other times hindered the flow (e.g., The Intruder, Chocolate Queen). Other occasional stumbles keep the album flowing smoothly, mainly near the end. The brief (three minutes each) Pictor H.H. and Enigma never felt like they belonged. Neither did the start of the final track (The Golden Guitar), that opens with a heavy-metalish boom-boom-stomp beat. Similarly, the almost poppish beat at the beginning of Chocolate Queen was painfully out of place. In the last two cases, however, the band quickly regrouped with magnetic storm bursts of electric guitar. Although this album has some flaws, Inner Whirl shows a band that has a lot of potential to make a great space rock album. In particular, I liked Dario's guitar lines, which weren't solos so much as lysergic theremin excursions on electric guitar. Maurizio also displays a very cosmic synth voice that only needs a little work for total originality.