Solarminds – Her Spirit Cracked The Sky LP (Mind Altering Records)

Solarminds are roaming the scene for quite a while, and their unstoppable creativity creates wonders on each subsequent album. Since their formation in 2001, the group took a particular direction that evolved for two decades, so their music only becomes more meaningful, deep, and detailed with time. No matter if you ever stumbled upon their complete works or particular tracks, you’ll notice these exceptional musicians are approaching the sound with experience and knowledge, which often results in extended colossal slabs of engaging melodies. Since their beginnings, Solarmids released brilliant works such as A Lighthouse For The Sun, X-Rays And Open Transmissions, and Intimate Portraits And Ambient Gestures. After a five-year gap between recordings, the group is more than ready to release another unquestionably remarkable album named Her Spirit Cracked The Sky.

Her Spirit Cracked The Sky carries three longevous compositions, fully stacked with bright ideas, intelligent arrangements, rollercoaster structures, and outstanding musicianship. Their music defies classification into one particular genre. Quite the contrary, Solarminds are exploring every possible genre you could even imagine by highlighting particular segments or nearly entire songs with a comprehensive collection of engaging sonic elements. Perhaps the shoegaze would be an appropriate starting point, but there are also elements of ambient, cinematic, symphonic, experimental, post-rock, indie-rock, ethno, and world music. The involvement of ambient, cinematic, symphonic, and experimental music is vividly hearable throughout the entire album and it’s nearly mindblowing how these skilled musicians are incorporating all these genres into polyphonous harmony.

Their experimental side and the willingness to explore even further when there is nothing to be explored is what keeps their music so interesting. Solarminds are always going a step further when it comes to explorations with the sound, so you will be positively surprised how The Gift has millions of building sequences, atmospheric melodies, world music articulations, and rhythmic segments. Each moment may sound repetitious at some points, but it is unquestionably unique in its special way. The Lie separates The Gift and The Visit with an acoustic performance that hits relatively near anti-folk music, but it has some minimal field recording elements included along the way. It unquestionably prepares the listeners for The Visit, which starts with some minimal drone/field recording experimentations but evolves into a complex ambient shoegaze number as time passes. This particular composition includes so many layers of ear-appealing atmospherics, decorated by echoic percussions at the very end. It gives such a nice closure to this outstanding album.

You should consider purchasing this ambient shoegaze gem on vinyl. Her Spirit Cracked The Sky provides countless listening moments, decorated with tremendous musicianship and excellent ideas. The album is available on vinyl at Mind Altering Records, but you can also listen to it on Spotify if you prefer streaming services. Head over to the Mind Altering Records website for more information about ordering this gem.