Himmelaya - 2025 - Lost Horizon

(81:36; Regal Crabomophone)

There is no doubt that if you want to stay on top of what is happening at Fruits de Mer Records then you need to be on their mailing list as I note this album is already sold out! Although this is a new band, all the players are well known, with the project being led by Swordfish from Astralasia. It all started when contact was made by Jochen Oberlack (the man behind Bellerophon Records in Dusseldorf), and originally it was going to be an instrumental album, but Swordfish wanted it to be a bit ore like Ash Ra Tempel so brought in Britt Rönnholm (Us and Them) to provide ethereal vocals which were spoken rather than sung, along with Pete Pracownik (who passed away the day after the song “Shangrilaya” was completed).

I don’t know how the conversation went between Jochen and Swordfish, but if the aim was to produce an album heavily influenced by Krautrock but also bringing in Psychedelic tendencies in a very English Canterbury style then I would say they succeeded. There is something almost mesmeric about some of the underlying keyboards, and it is most definitely an album which needs to be played on headphones when one has the time to be taken away to a very different time and place.

One can imagine Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk combining with the Judy Dyble to produce something like this, but only if Swordfish were involved as he has that ability to bring that style of project to life and make it a viable entity in its own right. I “only” have the audio for the double album, which comes in at 82 minutes, but each set also comes with a bonus double CD of extra tracks, alternative mixes and remixes which means this is a very long release indeed, with plenty for everyone so while there are upbeat numbers which fall almost into they dance arena, it is the slower and more atmospheric which I feel are most effective. Well worthy of investigation if you can find one. 

Kev Rowland, September 2025

Links:
https://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/