Faidros (aka Jonas Rosén) has crafted a spectacular homage to golden-era Kosmische Musik, complete with all of the warmth and analogue goodness reminiscent of the genre's most prolific progenitors: Klaus Schulze and Edgar Froese chief among them.
Evidenced by metal stalwarts Blood Incantation's 2022 Timewave Zero,the current revival of the 70s German style has a pretty wide reach. Broken into two long tracks, Faidros's album blooms and swarms with the best of Tangerine Dream's 80s' soundtracks–huge filter sweeps and modded leads. On top of the incredibly smooth transitions and layering of pads, there are also heavily delayed arpeggiated patterns that recall the more guitar-driven side of the cosmic divide, like a darker, moodier Manuel Göttsching or Günter Schickert. Not far off, really, given Tangerine Dream's rock roots (Schulze actually played drums in an early iteration of the band).
In Berlin, these histories still inhabit one another, but what is most impressive about Faidros is the way time moves, in long stretches that are wonderfully out of step with the immediacy required by contemporary media. The first of the two pieces, "Phaidros I", is focused while still leaving lots of open space for exploration. The second begins in much the same manner but becomes more frenetic and determined, with a faster tempo, driving force, and intruding Atari effects piercing through the mix. The ubiquitous movement of air is also present, in case we might mistake the landscape for something extraterrestrial. For all its moodiness, Phaidros never veers into claustrophobia or sonic oversaturation, leaving the soft attack and decay of analog synths to break the inevitable fall.
Fans of any of the aforementioned acts will find this a very faithful update to the Cosmic genre. Others who are in search of a good soundtrack, for whatever purpose, should enjoy getting lost in the technology of a hard-won past. For
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