Listened to this one the other day. I actually finally appreciated Sphinx Lightning. The title track is up there with TD's best compositions and It would have been great to have had a side long track in this style.
The track length of Sphinx Lightning is 19.56 on Hyperborea.... Hyper Sphinx is 14.20 on Sleeping Watches Snoring in Silence.... it fades out before we get to the last part which is called Sphinx Red Lightning and is 4.56 on the album TD plays TD.
My favourite of these is Hyper Sphinx.
“There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge.”
Hyperborea is an underrated masterpiece. It seperates from the rest in that way, that the band has flirted with Indian music.
No Man's Land is a merry, yet not especially demanding, heartening, album opener, with it's rhytms being pounded on tablas.
However, the word demanding can be used on the next track, Hyperborea. Very slow and tearjerking. I get goose pimples in the B-section, which has a discrete, delicious programmed rhythm track, with plenty of reverb.
In the Dominion-style (closing track on Logos), Cinnamon Road is a little delicate gem, with sitar played over some of the best chord progressions from the eighties.
The melody is charming, innocent and refreshing compared to most of the album, which is serious and intectually inquiring.
Sphinx Lightning takes up the entire second side, and is identically with Pinnacles By Edgar Froese and the live Poland from the following year.
It's hard to tell if the sound is cold or warm, when the bombastic hapsichord chords open the 20-minute long suite.
At a point the sequencing somewhat fades out, as repeating drum machines becomes the main rhythmic attraction. It reaches it's first climax, and upon that comes an atmospheric piece, and as it starts to fade, it leads one to think, that is over.
But we still got seven minutes left. The drum machine is very dominant again, combined with dripping synths. When the drum machines pan from speaker to speaker, it's a stunning headphone experience.
16 minutes into the track the drum machine stands out, as the track gets into a crescendo with great chords and melodies. In the last two minutes a synth chord takes it into its conclusive phase. The drum machine fades out for good, and all we have left is the synthesizers to end it, in the usual way.
Hyperborea is a work integrity, and if you get moved by the music, don't hesitate to buy the original Pinnacles by Edgar Froese!
The version released on sleeping watches is a cool revival of this great ambient composition I think it a good intro into this 3 track ep .... maybe more from Hyperboera will arise...
Taximan431 wrote:The version released on sleeping watches is a cool revival of this great ambient composition I think it a good intro into this 3 track ep .... maybe more from Hyperboera will arise...