Short Reviews [Dr Space - 2025 - "Music for Italian Restaurants on Neptune"]

This is a rather a strange album title, but when it is understood that originally this was connected with a performance at an Italian restaurant it makes rather more sense. Scott Heller (Oresund Space Collective and others) has been living in Portugal for some years now, and he was asked to perform at a local Italian restaurant about five minutes from his home. The week prior to the event he started working on new music, where for each piece he played an arpeggio on the Novation Ultranova or Nord Lead 2 or Poly D, then added Mellotron over the top. He recorded two days of rehearsal, made notes of what he wanted to achieve, but was not pleased with the results from the actual performance itself so instead of making those tracks available he has instead released a series of tracks culled from the rehearsals. Called "Ambient 1" through to "Ambient 8" (although strangely missing "Ambient 3"), most of the tracks are roughly 7 or 8 minutes in length although one is 16 and we end on one which is 19. The result is an album which is quite hypnotic in style, drawing in the listener, even though in some ways it is quite simplistic in the background with lots of effects and soundscapes in the foreground. The repeated arpeggios provide the structure, and then over the top of that we get layering of keyboards which may, or may not, follow the original theme, plus other sequencers and different threads being added in. It never sounds like the work of just one person working through banks of styles, and there is much here which would be compared to early Kraftwerk, especially if they were mixing in Tangerine Dream and Hawkwind. The result is electronic progressive rock with a huge dose of space rock which is somehow comforting, in a robotic and non-emotional sort of way. One can imagine much of this being taken and used in a film, yet it also very much stands on its own and is something I have found myself being repeatedly drawn towards. It is something which does need to be played on headphones, but I found its style rather immediate and was soon deep inside the universe being shown to us by Dr. Space, and repeated plays have only strengthened that impression. Yet another thoroughly enjoyable release from this hugely creative musician.