Alwoods – Aeolian Mode

English / Polish version

Alwoods - Aeolian Mode
    ALTAR RECORDS
    Alwoods
    Aeolian Mode
    2011

      1. Natural Calling
      2. Voice Of Sherwood
      3. Near Light
      4. Psychedelic Dream
      5. Low Red Moon
      6. Sun Trap
      7. Samothraki
      8. Kerkini Lake

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„Since love grows within you so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul”

In every place on Earth the music tastes different, and yet the same… Quite recently, once again indeed I have realized that the psychedelic chillout has an awful lot of tones and works literally anywhere in the world. As for me, it is a species which, along with goa and psychedelic trance has no equal one, and moreover it combines the sounds of continents, cultures and ethnic groups. I am awfully glad that when I finally, after many years I was able to embark on my dream trip to Goa, I was accompanied by a beautiful album which includes all the best. I mean a combination of some downtempo and progressive beat sounds that supported by the tones of nature make the music becomes more and more visionary, stimulant and addictive. After returning home, when the aura around changed, the character of the album was also different a little bit. AEOLIAN MODE, because I write about this title, is also interesting to me for another reason – I have fondness for Greece and everything associated with it. When I have read on the inside cover of the plate that its producer, Alwoods ‘draws inspiration from his love of nature, the elements, and his time spent in the Greek mountainside’, and additionally in the album I saw such titles as: SAMOTHRAKI and KERKINI LAKE, I just could not do anything else but try to review the material straight from the Canadian Altar Records.

The album title itself I associate not the best – the term AEOLIAN MODE reminds me of the hated object during my studies, I mean ‘The Greek and Roman metric’ (the name could hardly pass through my throat, who has had to deal with it, understand me well). As for the author of AEOLIAN MODE, Alwoods I remember his track called BLUE HOLE in a very good compilation ETHNOSCAPES from the year 2011. Under the pseudonym Alwoods hides John Rigas, maybe more familiar with the wider group from his psytrance project Atreus. In the psychill album, which tracks remain in the range from 103 to 117 bpm you can feel a pleasant, lightweight trance climate brilliantly reviewers the atmosphere of a warm summer day. To me, NATURAL CALLING thanks to its gentle nature, the sounds of merry dolphins, which are among the most delicate, precious and fabulous creatures, is perfect for the sunrise. The tracks: VOICE OF SHERWOOD and NEAR LIGHT may be good companions of the morning, when the sun shines timidly, and we are ready to use the energy, which came to us after the sleep during the night. And thanks to PSYCHEDELIC DREAM, LOW RED MOON, SUN TRAP and SAMOTHRAKI we can actively spend our day and fill it with some new experiences. Certainly, in addition to the psychedelic backgrounds and inserts, an accelerative beat and progressive sound of the tracks helps us in gaining experiences. SAMOTHRAKI irritated me a little bit because of the initial, repetitive, annoying melody, but fortunately after a minute John Rigas directed the sounds on the right track and the whole has become more acceptable. The last stop on our way with AEOLIAN MODE is the track KERKINI LAKE, and the best visual setting for it may be the sunset, at which we can make a settlement from all the passing day.

Thanks to Alwoods and the album, to which the mastering was done by the founder of Altar Records (DJ Zen), I have realized that music can be heard differently depending on the location, surroundings, conditions, and you can still feel it the same intensely and visually. While being in Goa, AEOLIAN MODE seemed to me ideally suited to what I have found there. The sounds of wildlife, some exotic animals, the heat radiating from the people, the roar of the sea, the warm sand under my feet, the colours and most importantly, a little return to the roots of goa and psytrance – all those things I could find not only all around me, but also in the album of Alwoods. After returning home, I have heard it differently, I have analyzed the sounds, images formed in my head more soberly, but still I felt it as positive as the first time, but in a completely different reality.

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7 / 10
Kasia