Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » This Celestial Engine: This Celestial Engine

7

This Celestial Engine: This Celestial Engine

By

View read count
This Celestial Engine: This Celestial Engine
This self-titled debut album is a masterful concoction of genres, melding psychedelic nuances with avant jazz and progressive rock elements. It showcases the talents of Ted Parsons on drums, Dave Sturt on bass, and Roy Powell on keyboards. These musicians are celebrated for their extensive contributions across jazz, metal, rock, and experimental music genres. Operating out of Oslo, Norway, the band draws on their varied musical backgrounds to create immersive soundscapes that transport listeners across cosmic distances.

The album kicks off with "The Astral Doctrine," a mesmerizing track that weaves together subtle drones and the glitter of cymbals, grounded by an otherworldly bass line and an EFX-driven loop. These elements evolve into psychedelic explorations sparking lucid imagery of processing the universe's electromagnetic vibrations. Roy Powell's piano, replete with reverb, builds into ascendant choruses, setting the stage for Dave Sturt's prominent snare and hi-hat-driven rhythms, culminating in Powell's thematic synth solos. Following this is "Supranormal Headspace," a piece where serene piano melodies transition into complex synthesizer arpeggios, leading to a showcase of the trio's impeccable improvisational skills and constructive interaction.

"Rewire My Subtext" pushes into avant-garde territory, blending suspenseful cinematic effects, jarring harmonies, and melodic fragments that occasionally draw from Eastern scales. Powell's keyboard work, marked by sharply articulated chords within a dense sonic fabric, executes a jazzy piano solo that gracefully closes the piece. The album concludes with "Mindmelding," a track that embodies the experimental and unbridled spirit of the album, offering a deep dive into abstract soundscapes and musical freedom.

This Celestial Engine is a kaleidoscopic journey through sound, an audacious blend of musical styles and textures that forge an unforgettable audio experience. The album looms as a tribute to the trio's imaginative capacity, inviting listeners to traverse the limitless expanses of their creativity.

Track Listing

The Astral Doctrine; Supranormal Headspace; Any The Wiser; Rewire My Subtext; Mindmelding.

Personnel

This Celestial Engine
band / ensemble / orchestra
Roy Powell
keyboards
Dave Sturt
bass, electric
Additional Instrumentation

Roy Powell: loops; Dave Sturt: Bass, Ebow Bass, weird shit; Ted Parsons: percussion.

Album information

Title: This Celestial Engine | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Discus Music

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.