Diversions Vol. 2: Enter the Astral Plane by Kanaan

This album features a masterpiece of psychedelia, both spontaneous and structured, which I encourage everyone to listen to: "Enter the Astral Plane."

This album is a collection of compositions and improvisations recorded in 2021 and showcases a side of the band that had emerged in live performances but had not been fully documented: "exploring different moods and musical spaces where collective improvisation is at the forefront."

Taken from the album's presentation on their sales channel (Bandcamp), because when the right words have already been said, there's no need to invent new ones:

"Freed from the constraints of song structures, Kanaan's eminent musicianship and boundless creativity can unleash themselves. These new pieces of music oscillate between explosiveness and youthful exuberance ("Blitz"), combined with a more mature and patient approach to song development ("Enter the Astral Plane").

Citing Cream, Jimi Hendrix at the Atlanta Pop Festival, CAN, The Heads, Hawkwind, and Ash Ra Temple as inspirations and references, Kanaan should give the listener a sense of the sounds awaiting them. The band affirms this motto as the ethos of their brand of space rock: No Composition – No Ego – Psychedelia as Religion."

Well, this album is exactly that.

Can you do a track-by-track on an album of improvisations? I'll try.

The album consists of four tracks, two over 16 minutes long and two just 93 seconds and 6 minutes long, for a total runtime of approximately 41 minutes.

Enter the Astral Plane, the first track, occupies almost the entire A-side. A carpet of synthesizers with predominantly bass and syncopated sounds, like sound waves crashing and filtering, over which a drum base with a continuous and nuanced groove is laid, a bass in the background that creates a continuous loop, and guitars that emit long, intense sounds. Different phases of growth follow one another with ever-increasing emphasis and richness in the sounds, which become more and more articulated and complex, also growing in volume, returning to more subdued atmospheres, with only the huge drum and bass groove, which quickly take center stage and form the basis for guitar and synth incursions that, over that base, launch accents, scream consonants, scratch with high-pitched sounds, and whaling like whales. The finale is pounding. Drums smash, bass carves time, a fantastic choral and psychedelic chaos, the guitar going wild behind the thunderous and iron-sculpted rhythmic base without for a moment losing the groove, the main beat, the structure, but rather challenging and destroying the structure, keeping it alive. A song that unfortunately only lasts 16 minutes, but could go on forever without ever boring. A masterpiece.

Aura, the shortest, closes Side A at around 90 seconds, a synth loop with growing intensity, with a carpet of sounds that alternate in relief with great taste. 90 magical seconds. 

Blitz, six minutes of almost completely deconstructed sounds. Drums, bass, and guitar seem to go in different directions, united only by the same speed, but they are completely in harmonic dissonance for the entire first few minutes of the song. Slowly, like a PLL synchronizes the incoming flows on the same clock, they try to align on a similar frequency, with great difficulty, very slowly, until they succeed when the tempo slows down. The guitar sounds like an out-of-tune violin with a wail attached. The guitarist has decided to drive the others crazy, but they don't go crazy and go straight on their own way and don't care. The distorted bass takes center stage and silences everyone. The drums try to step in, but it wins, the bass. Even the guitar gives up. And off we go again, searching for the meaningless groove that makes this piece so splendid. Six minutes of genius and madness. Great.

Rough Air is the closing track. A carpet of synths and a wind of cymbals. The sounds are unleashed without logic but with great taste. The guitarist begins a melodic mood, but the drums break the rhythm and set a pressing, straight, precise beat. Then everyone plays along (great jams!!!) one by one. The bass rests for the moment with a very straight base without variations. The synths set up a familiar pattern that fits perfectly, though. The guitar begins with a very long solo, spaceships gliding, waves reflecting, variations in gravity and the weight of the atmosphere. A kind of trap we've fallen into now and can only helplessly drift along. The keyboards play a loop in a slight offbeat, but it fits well; even a broken clock tells the right time once a day. It presses and pushes and overwhelms. Fantastic.

The artwork is beautiful, absolutely psychedelic, and I've posted all the photos.
The rhythm section is simply fantastic.

I consider this album a psychedelic masterpiece.

Absolutely recommended!

The Tracks
1. Enter the Astral Plane (16:51)
2. Aura (1:33)
3. Blitz (6:19)
4. Rough Air (16:22)

Running Time 41:05

The Lineup
- Ask Vatn Strøm - guitars
- Eskild Myrvoll - bass and synth
- Ingvald André Vassbø - drums and organ.