God Is An Astronaut is one of the most prolific bands of their genre, they’ve been creating masterpieces of space rock since 2002 and each album has been a confirmation of their unique approach to music writing. Possibly many came to know the band by listening to their early albums The End of the Beginning (2002) and All Is Violent, All Is Bright (2005) so it’s very intriguing to find out what the band is up to in 2024. With no surprise, Embers immediately takes you aback to the same sensation you probably felt the first time you came across them: totally entranced.
GIAA‘s new full-length is due to debut on September 6th via Napalm Records and it’s their most extensive and grandiose production to date, mastered by Europe’s foremost mastering engineer Streaky. The band founded by brothers Torsten and Niels Kinsella created a collection of songs that invites the listeners to explore and interpret it in their own unique ways. Everything is driven by rhythms by drummer Lloyd Hanney and enriched by collaborations with artists such as Jo Quail on cello for all their tracks and Sean Coleman who incorporated various ethnic musical instruments such as the sitar, zither, shamanic drums, bowed psaltery, chimes and tanpura. All of these together gave the album that ultimate feel of “adventure” and “travel”. The theme of “journey“ is one recurrent in the band’s work, whether it’s cosmic, in your mind or on our planet as human existence.
Photo Credit: Stuart Wood
‘Apparition’ starts the album as a strong and concise track, clean, delicate and straightforward. This, until the three minutes mark, when it switches to a more aggressive stoner riff reminding us that anything can happen at any time with GIAA. If the first track shook you, the first single coming out of Embers ‘Falling Leaves’ is there to pick you up and caress your heart. A clear stand out is ‘Odyssey’ which starts with a repetitive guitar arpeggio and some melodies with haunting undertones functioning almost as a spell. The whole track is an exhilarating ride blending all facets of the band’s incredible songwriting skills. Once again around the three minutes mark, the song erupts into some pure psychedelic rock, with a middle-eastern imprint. This track is just epical.
A very different experience is to be had with ‘Heart of Roots’. Entering with a “Tool like bass line” accompanied by some inebriating guitar chords, this track seems to be portraying a more hedonistic part of everyone’s life experience, it feels romantic and intense. Honorable mention to the title track ‘Embers’, the longest of the album. This is ten minutes of pure storytelling. It has a cinematic feel to it. So far this album has definitely had a more compelling story to tell, it gives your brain food for thoughts and it relies less on just a sense of peace and relaxation. The absolute chaotic ensemble in the last part of this song makes it really clear. ‘Realms’, ‘Oscillation’ and ‘Prisms’ bring you back to a more classic meditative and spiritual GIAA experience before ending with ‘Hourglass’, the perfect closure with its delicate piano and slowly built-up layers of drums and guitars, which ends it all with synths and brown noise. Simple but surely effective.
God Is An Astronaut are just amazing at what they do and they confirmed it with Embers once again. The three piece will never cease to amaze their audience with both great studio albums and mesmerizing live shows. It would be very interesting to know how and why each song ended up named the way it does to see how different their point of view on their music is from the one of their listeners. Each person can take what they want from their music and interpret it how they best feel. This is real for many artists, but especially for instrumental bands like GIAA. There is something so very precious and special about creating art that allows people to take a break and travel with their mind for a bit.