ALTAR RECORDS RA Unearthly 2012 1. Floating Shrine Of Inanna 2. Rain No Water 3. Ascend 4. Shift 5. Lifethread (Serene Mix) 6. Lightspark 7. Unearthly 8. Celestial Slice

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The god of the Sun, Ra by the ancient Egyptians was considered to be the world creator and the master of order in the universe, but in the culture of goa music RA is just Christer Borge-Lunde. This Norwegian is associated with the goa trance style, and in particular with a great album called 9th which was released in 2008. This time, after four years of waiting, again we have the opportunity to look at the work of Christer and there is a flavour added to the fact that the album UNEARTHLY is a mixture kept in downtempowo and ambient style. Certainly it is no surprise to us, because not once and not twice the artist proved to us that also with a slower pace he deals great. Another advantage that should speak to us before unpacking the CD, is the fact that it was released by Canadian Altar Records, and as we know what goes through the hands of DJ Zen, must be good.

FLOATING SHRINE OF INANNA – from the very beginning we melt with the goddess of light, Inanna. This track can be considered to be a kind of delicate and rising intro, which will take us on a further magical, historical journey. Anyone who so far has associated RA only with a strong impact, now can see that also some downtempo productions under his hands have the specific nature and reflect what everyone likes the most in the psychedelic music. You could say that after the storm, which gave us the album 9th, comes the heavenly sun, which is the result of UNEARTHLY.

RAIN NO WATER – another solid dose of reflective and melancholic ambient music. Some calm, gentle guitar sounds and pads make that the abstract title is quite clear to us, and bathed in dry rain for a long time we will be stuck in a majestic lethargy.

ASCEND – it is a combination of goa RA and chillout RA, definitely here you can find no slow pace, as it was in the case of the previous tracks, also there is no brisk impact to which we are used to after listening to the album called 9th. ASCEND rises to heights not only us, but also Christer; along with a deep beat, mysterious voice, light rhythm we can balance our body, fantasize with our mind, and when we put that all together, there wiill come out the perfect composition.

SHIFT – 'To jump across space and travel in time…’ and we have the return to the roots, some characteristics, Middle Eastern melodies harnessed by the rapid and forceful beat. Uprooted from downtempo lethargy, willingly and happily we can drift among the magical and slightly acid sounds. Although the whole is composed in a fairly simple and schematic way, you can not go past this track neutrally, itself it grabs our body and causes satisfaction on our face.

LIFETHREAD (SERENE MIX) – SERENE MIX is the answer to LIFETHREAD, which could be found in the compilation SHALTU released in the beginning of the year 2012. Anyone who associates the original version, will clearly establish that it has an amazing transformation here, which can be described as a masterpiece. The subtle tempo, soft sounds, all mixed with oriental atmosphere gives us such a small explosion of positive psybient from the top shelf.

LIGHTSPARK – another trance and ambient position on the disc, positive with every extracting sound, with every fleeing second and again in spite of uniformity, it can fully satisfy us. LIGHTSPARK does not knock on our knees, it is not surprising with anything special, but it fits perfectly with the predecessors and it is highly suitable for the specific nature of the disc.

UNEARTHLY – the dose of solidly vibrating sounds in the case of RA must be maintained. So it is also this time, and with every second UNEARTHLY charges the batteries, and finally full of positive energy it can give us another minute of solid and above average music. It is impossible not to compare this track with its predecessors, because the atmosphere which prevails here, combined with the deep beat, is very similar, and only a few details differ the two tracks. Just like in LIGHTSPARK, also here our senses are content.

CELESTIAL SLICE – the final of the album is the typical downtempo production without undue elation and euphoria, with the bliss we can afford a few moments of total oblivion and escape from the world around us. The great end of the great album.

Let the pros do not overshadow the cons, but this time there are so many positives, that even if I wanted to discern any negatives, it would be very hard for me. UNEARTHLY is a great dose of harmonious downtempo, deep chillout, mellow ambient, lively trance and timeless goa. UNEARTHLY is definitely a piece of 'otherworldly’ music.
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8 / 10
Tofik