Prolific American multi-instrumentalist Tom Bolton handles everything here, a fascinating blend of classic German school electronica with the added thrill of some blistering electric guitar sizzle and elegant electric piano that originally came to my attention with the 2023 album “The Mountain”. Surely both Pink Floyd and Steve Hillage come to mind as distant influences , an instrumental trip to the other side of Jupiter.
The title track is a placid flood of swirling synthesized clouds, streaking guitar glitter like comets travelling beyond the stars, a soporific and steady beat that is all balm and patience. The confident bass citations give added foundational solidity to the pace, always a great idea when dealing with instrumental space rock.
A shivering organ introduction suggests a reverential tone that provides the ideal altar for another extended fretboard splurge, once again supported by an upfront bass undertow. Adding reverberating e-piano droplets further obscures the clouds, a Gong-like mood (Isle of Everywhere) is only a temporary lull, before the weeping guitar takes this straight into the asteroid belt. “Time Dilation” does exactly as the title implies, a space between here and then that has no clock ticking mechanism, just floating gingerly in galactic luxuriance.
Bolton ramps up the mood with an epic 9 minute+ epic “Beyond the Horizon”, laying down a sturdy and unremitting bass line that cements the restrained and unhurried melodic buildup, letting the effects-laden synths and guitars shiver deep into the astronomical expanse, a comfortably numbing excursion into the eye of the interstellar needle. An incredible sophisticated fragment of luminous music, with serious devotion to emotional solicitude.
While on the subject, “Fragments of Light” seems like the appropriate segue , a sectionally brief interjection of crystalline e-piano and weaving synths, adorned with wailing axe reflections, all set to a hypnotic cadence that exudes confidence.
“The Andromeda Paradox” is another excellent adventure in Floydian regalia, Bolton clearly defining his innermost feelings on a quivering lead that shows no desire to fade into the grey darkness of the universe. The melodic replication into an even loftier plane is where the intensity really shines through, a bass flurry waving as it flies into the unknown.
And that is where the ultimate destination is finally reached on “Whispers of the Cosmos”, another 10-minute introspective platform into an inner world beyond the outer one, where time and space are blurred into bliss. That irascible bass certainly keeps the impulse active in perpetual sonic discovery. Though mostly mellow, nothing is really ambient to the point of falling into slumber, the emotional dynamics are always skin-deep and meaningful, like all the other mind-music albums that have thrilled fans over the decades.
Ideal as a Sunday morning gentle wake-up, but also late-night exploration of the senses at its most reflective, Analog Sunshine definitely has a place in any prog collection, especially mine.
4.5 Ghostly Solar Rays