Porcupine Tree
In Absentia

In this strange year, obviously, many strange things happen to me. To exorcise the power of many strange things, a good flight of fancy is necessary, attempting to connect all the points of before, during, and after... I speak of flying since I've done it all my life, I've flown. There are those who are destined to stay grounded "fortunately" and those who are meant to fly (especially with their minds). I also took a great "Icarus" flight, from the disastrous fall I had to start all over again.

Those who love archaeology viscerally as I do know that great discoveries are often accidental, strokes of luck. A thousand times I've thought "What must have Howard Carter felt when he realized???!!! And Lord Carnavon when he informed him?" In their search, did they know they would go down in history?

Silence the detractors of this flight of fancy! We're talking about PASSION!

Those who live by instinct, passion, and hedonism predominantly LOVE and develop a very strong empathic "potential", they see beauty everywhere! Here we start from the principle that emotions are sometimes in the little things. If misanthropy then doesn't belong to you, you LOVE human beings deeply and understand that besides family there's another great value: friendship.

I was in the hospital for pneumonia (having left the Ethos Mama Club dressed in nothing) when a friend brought me the "The Wall" tape. I was getting a massage with a friend when I first heard "Mezzanine," and a friend told me to listen to "Kid A" during a trip.

If an important and new friend casually throws in a listening recommendation for Porcupine Tree as if you obviously knew them, it's nice. Because you don't know them. And if they tell you to listen to "In Absentia," it's even nicer because in three days not only do you listen to only that but you also write a review.

The point is that being a music enthusiast leads to a very, very tortuous, joyful, emotional, and mental journey. The music enthusiast is "stateless" inside, ageless, knows how to mentally enhance a listening experience in every way because music is addictive, especially if the first thing you do in the morning is turn it on, and the last thing turn it off.

In Absentia (perhaps it won't be Porcupine Tree's best work) as other reviews also say, but give me time. After all, "Spiritchaser" by Dead Can Dance is their "worst" album, but it's the first I knew. The journey is important even if it has to be backwards.

For what I FEEL, this album is divided right into two parts. Up to "The Sound Muzak" lighter and fast, then more intimate and "painful" but also much more sophisticated. I perhaps hear more of Tool as in "Strip the Soul," for example. It's more of a magma... difficult to extrapolate tracks that are part of a viscous and dark whole.

Starting again from the beginning, the attack of "Blackest Eyes" pierces only to switch to the fantastic melodious voice. Perhaps at a certain point, it becomes a bit too suggestive, but then comes that little masterpiece of "Trains" folky and articulated, and the pleasure becomes physical and powerful! "Lips of Ashes" throws you down and up as it pleases! My favorite is "The Sound of Muzak" where the voice attacks, the melody comes, and in the background the rhythm intensifies!

Relator calls! Wants to publish! It's "new" and renews itself, has the urgency to finish!

Thus, I celebrate twenty years since the first review. This site has changed my way of seeing life for many reasons, taking (from everything and everyone), musical listening, intelligent conversations and also meeting beautiful people to share concerts and so much, so much music.

Hi Cleo... as you can see I can still write!