Lightdreams
Islands in Space

THE REVIEW

What happens when 2 Canadians want to encapsulate space in a 45-minute vinyl? You get a concentrate of pure wonder!

This Islands in Space, the only work by the Canadians Andre Martin and Paul R. Marcano, AKA Lightdreams, created in 1981, is one of those works that is absolutely difficult to explain to someone who has never heard of it... it's 45 minutes of space music, with dreamy keyboards and synthesizers that lull you with their melodies, acoustic instruments and electric guitars intertwining to form truly cosmic, sweet, and icy atmospheres, an absence of percussive instruments (drums, tambourines, etc.), and a voice that appears sporadically, but when it does... good heavens the effect it has!

When you listen to this record, you're no longer on this planet, you float weightlessly, suspended in the depths of space, flying calmly and peacefully among the galaxies, in pure tranquility, and meanwhile, you greet the astronauts and other bizarre cosmic beings, who look at you incredulously from their shuttles and space stations, saying "Hey! Do you see that guy out there?!". You continue flying through space, in a sea of stars, flying over the "space islands" mentioned in the album's title and in the marvelous artwork, floating while observing every dimension, every sky, every world, forever... or at least until the record ends.

I can't say more than this, this record is truly something magical, which I recommend to any lover of psychedelic/ambient music, and to conclude I want to tell you a little anecdote about the second time I listened to this record: it was deep winter, it was evening, and I was completely alone. I got under the covers, leaving a window slightly open, put on this record in headphones and closed my eyes... in the end, I fell asleep, but the record entered my dream, with the window still open and the cold having completely taken over the room... you will NEVER, NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER, have the slightest idea of what I saw, felt, and experienced that night! The morning after, I had a fever of 38 degrees but it was worth it, damn it!