Kryptästhesie
Inner Whirl

THE REVIEW

When talking about the Italian psychedelic scene of the '80s, the names that always come to mind are the various No Strange, Birdmen Of Alkatraz, Steeplejack, Liars, Allison Run, Leanan Sidhe, Effervescent Elephants, Four By Art, The Strange Flowers, and Technicolour Dream. These names are the most important and artistically valid. However, there is a group that was active in the '90s, a period when the driving force of the genre had waned, which might be why they are remembered less. I'm talking about Kryptästhesie from Lecco, a five-member band that gifted the Cosmos with pearls of highly valuable and hard-to-label psychedelic music. Their double vinyl Shaken At The Sun (1992) is now considered a cult album, and those who saw them live tell tales of phantasmagoric performances that quickly entered the realm of legend. In 1996, they even released an album for Delerium, an English label specialized in psychedelia, titled Inner Whirl. The sound of Kryptästhesie is liquid and shifting, revealing a love for the early Pink Floyd, those of A Saucerful Of Secrets and Ummagumma, for the cosmic visions of Hawkwind and Amon Düül II, and for the space-rock of Ozric Tentacles. The influence of certain German school electronics and our own Franco Battiato is also evident. All this is blended into an original mix, confirming that psychedelia is not a nostalgic genre but a true philosophy of life still relevant today. Inner Whirl is a concentrate of pure psychedelia: let yourself be carried away by the electric gallop of “Flying Saucers,” the free-folk of “Watching The Sky” (which reminded me of the Amon Düül of Paradieswärts Düül and the Amon Düül II of “Sandoz In The Rain” from the legendary Yeti) and “An Evening Following A Cutle-Fish,” the “space” atmospheres of the long “The Tree,” the space-rock of “Secret Power,” and the lysergic sound of “His Golden Guitar,” and you will enter another dimension beyond time and space. With the subsequent No Age!, Kryptästhesie went further with an ever-expanding sound. For open minds and cosmic travelers.