Overshadowed by sorcerer 2.0.1.4. But chandra two is a great set of cinemascopic dreaminess. As ever better in headphones and one must let the soundscape evolve in the mind ....
Chandra II. It may not be the most remarkable work by TD ever, but it's actually not a bad album, after all. I think it's slightly better than its predecessor in that it seemed to me that Chandra I sounded more like a rough draft in so many places. Not in this case. Chandra II's execution has been improved. It's deeper, it's more thoughtful and even more philosophical to a point. I love its constant mysterious, spacey, dreamy, melancholic yet hopeful, and dark yet full-of-light tone. It's all so relaxing it can be used as the soundtrack for those times when you want to disconnect yourself from the rest of the world, close your eyes and voyage your own mind. Edgar Froese did it again and I was a bit wrong before when I said that perhaps everything was lost regarding TD. The album has its faults, of course, but they can be easily overlooked this time. I liked it even more than the latest sonic poem issue (Kafka's The Castle).
Tracks I care the least for: Auriga and Columba. "Meh!" tracks. They seemed to me like a couple of experiments to evolve the sound between Apus and Cygnus.
Aldebaran and Centaurus began both pretty good but after a while they dragged a bit. Edgar still seems to love his 7-minute marks, for some reason. My main problem with these 2 tracks was that Aldebaran wanted to be extremely dark and dramatic and Centaurus exactly the opposite: Too light and joyful. This in itself is not a bad thing, at all, but sometimes when you experiment with those sounds there comes a point when you just can't invent any more of them and whatever you try to add is going to sound a bit out of place or it will become repetitive.
Apus was very good but it still belongs to the "OK" category.
Cygnus was a bit repetitive and derivative at first ("Insight", from Autumn In Hiroshima, perhaps), but after the minute and a half mark it got better and better and ended up being great.
And now my favorite tracks: 3 Rotcaf Neila (what a very nice start!!), Dnammoc Su (of course always great to listen to Edgar's remarkable skills with the electric guitar), Capricornus (damn, is this one SO relaxing!!), and of course the winner and my number 1 favorite from this album: Monocerus. What a great way to close it. I'll go as far as to say that it's even on the same vein as "Hermaphrodite", from Finnegans Wake. The same quality and level of music and the representation of the whole album and its tones I mentioned above. I never get tired of listening to it over and over again.
All in all, a must. I find myself listening to this one with more joy than I ever had with Kafka's The Castle: I forgot almost everything about that one already. Actually, if this one had been titled "The Castle" and the other one "Chandra II", they would've suited each series more, in my opinion.
With Chandra II I tend to just zone out and let the music wash over me. As the melodies, with that hint of melancholia set the mood, changing sometimes subtly and then more dramatically with the progressing tracks. I really feel this album is a work of art. One of the best TD releases for years, along with Sorcerer 2014.
sorcerer wrote:Interesting to read your thoughts there D_TD.
With Chandra II I tend to just zone out and let the music wash over me. As the melodies, with that hint of melancholia set the mood, changing sometimes subtly and then more dramatically with the progressing tracks. I really feel this album is a work of art. One of the best TD releases for years, along with Sorcerer 2014.
