Billed as the "sonic and visual documentation of the journey of a lone astronaut into deep space, as imagined by a seven year old boy," there certainly is a lot of outer space imagery on Steve Fors' second release under the Aeronaut moniker. Conceptual trappings aside, this album is a strong piece of ambient noise that stands completely on its own as a slab of majestic tones and lush, beautiful textures.
That is not to say that the conceptual nature of the album is irrelevant:the packaging, which resembles an early 1980s kids’ science book, drives this point home with its bright colors and minimal graphics.Even more so with the inclusion of old red/blue 3d glasses, which themselves feature some rather They Live subliminal messages on them, albeit seemingly unrelated to the album.All four 15 minute pieces do an exemplary job of constructing the narrative on their own, as well.
"Preflight/Launch" is a bit overt at first, with its use of fuzzy mission control transmissions and requisite radio static, but built upon a slowly increasing bed of guitar feedback acting as a propulsive rocket engine. Eventually the noisiness retreats to allow the buried, soft tones to become the focus: a light, weightless near melody.
"My First Space Walk" also begins with one of the other overt concessions to the conceptual storyline:a pulsing, radar beacon like tone.Past this it is a dramatic synth string-like melody that is just a bit wobbly and out of tune, like a fluttering magnetic tape nearing its demise.The whole thing is appropriately dramatic and film-score like, with a slow and circular structure that continually builds upon itself.
The filtered noise and static of "Crossing the Oort Cloud," as well as the processed guitar feedback recalls the textures of the Coronal Mass debut, here mixed with a series of slowly rising and falling tones that give everything a distant, melancholy type sound to it, somewhere between dissonant and abrasive.Of all the pieces here, this one perhaps changes the least, but is no less fascinating.
The tones continue into closer "Into The Magellanic Stream," but stripped down and largely without noise.Like a sorrowful, drifting melody, it slowly becomes more and more boisterous, building to a louder and heavier volume without ever becoming too much, coming to a satisfyingly intense climax while still retaining that drifting through space feel.
Following the narrative via the overall concept and the individual song titles, Fors has done an admirable job at constructing a well rounded experience with Your Space Transmissions Listening Kit, although even if this were packaged in a plain black sleeve with only numbered compositions, this album would be just as compelling.Aeronaut expertly balances textural noise with lush, rich tones in a way that most can only dream of, and regardless of how he chooses to present it; the results have been beyond captivating thus far.
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