Long Distance Calling
Satellite Bay

Three months of enforced absence from reviewing on Deb; the usual “pitch-dark” period, the usual mental handwritings, continuous ups and downs. I'm used to it; even my women know me by now... and leave me alone... fortunately.

Today I feel like writing; this morning's hike, after a restless and sleepless night, gave me the right advice as I climbed in perfect solitude from 600 meters of Bognanco Fonti to over 1600 meters of San Bernardo, in the high valley. Hard trails, slopes to overcome at times very challenging, and in about two hours here I am at the destination, with a temperature not even too cold for March. But here winter hasn't started this year; very little snow, very few water reserves. A tough summer is on the horizon, but for the moment I don’t want to think about it, it's better much better.

Perhaps it was the immense landscapes that opened up before me; perhaps it was that total silence that accompanied me throughout the hike without meeting anyone, not even an animal today... and so it was that suddenly the cover of the debut album of the band originally from Münster, Germany, came to my mind.

Instrumental Post-Rock for long stretches melancholic, desolate; but at the same time brimming with radiant beauty. Seven long tracks for almost an hour of Music. The structures of the individual pieces are similar to each other; subdued starts, trembling, timid guitars. Hinted, rarefied, clean, chilly chords. It goes on like this for a few minutes, then the register changes key. The two guitars become the protagonists, the notes become vigorous, and the rhythmic section accompanies this blast, this emotional "upheaval".

Jungfernflug has the task of opening the album and does so in the way I have just described, resulting for me in the best track of "Satellite Bay". For half of its ten-minute duration, the sound flows placidly fluid; the strings of the guitars plucked, trembling. Everything changes in a few seconds; the chords become "metallic" (bear with me the term...), the drums create further disorder... but in a moment the sound becomes peaceful again... and again a very tough, heavy blast... and I can only think of the late Isis, with a “Tool”-like aftertaste... Sonic wonder!!!

They will do even better with the next one two years later, "Avoid The Light".

Ad Maiora.