Neptunian Maximalism
Éons

There are albums for which the auditory gestation can last a long time, they're so complex. You have to listen to them, let them macerate in the broth of memories, let them go and then take them back, play them again, and see what new things they have to say.

These are albums so complex and full (as well as long) that a distracted or simply slightly inattentive listen cannot aid in penetrating the psyche, if not the heart (we are in an era where long albums are not looked upon favorably because, unfortunately, our attention span, as we are bombarded by various media, has drastically decreased).

The album “éons” by the Belgians Neptunian Maximalism, led by Guillaume Cazalet, fits precisely amongst those mentioned above: imagine a parallel universe where Middle Eastern waves, jazzy saxophones, drone doom, psychedelic rock, Kraut Rock, noise avant-garde, electronic, zeuhl, Sunn O))), John Zorn, Tangerine Dream, Magma, Faust, Grateful Dead meet to coexist inside a magma of more than two hours where the keyword is improvisation. Well, if on the theoretical side this is exactly what the album offers, on the practical side things get complicated: the elements listed above are so immersed in this great sea of influences that the result is a work where every genre is unrecognizable yet identifiable, evanescent in the contours but perfectly in focus in the rendering.

The story narrated (the album is almost entirely instrumental) is that of the earth: divided into three parts, it starts from To The Earth, then To The Moon, and ends with To The Sun, staging the evolution of the earth from the end of the Anthropocene to the hypothetical and at least sci-fi era of the Probocene, a new time dominated by elephants.

128 minutes of music, entwined with itself, in no way ostentatious of any technical feats, extremely communicative even though quite difficult.

It took me 2 years to elevate this album to a masterpiece, making it mine, listening to it and relistening to it, finding the squaring of the circle.

Beautiful cover by Kaneko Tomiyuki that completes an album that is nothing but a wonderful experience.