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Ed Wynne — Shimmer into Nature
(Kscope 827, 2019, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2019-02-15

Shimmer into Nature Cover art

It’s been a good four years since the last Ozric Tentacles album Technicians of the Sacred came down from on high, a double CD and a great one which was promptly reviewed in these pages. I’m not sure if this new album from Ed “Ozric” Wynne, his debut solo release, means the band is on hiatus (permanent or temporary) or if it’s just a side project following the band’s first fifty or so releases, but whatever it is, it is what it is (of course!). This is everything that any Ozric Tentacles fan would want or expect,and since multi-instrumentalist Wynne was always the beating heart of the band, the seven tracks herein definitely serve up a great bowl full of swirling psychedelic sorcery just like the best of what came before it. Spinning magnetic orbs fill the heliosphere with colorful dripping residue amid bursts of twisting guitars that arc over the planetary skies while the pounding bass pulses and intense repetitive beats form a solid foundation under it all. Like Ozric’s work, this is 100% instrumental with Wynne handling all guitars, basses, drum programming, and probably the bulk of the synths, with additional players handling synths on this track or that, the talking drum, hang drum, and congas, blip flippery and nature atmospherics, track depending, players including Natan Mantis, Silas Neptune (Wynne), and Paul Hankin, all of recent Ozric and related endeavors. The pace is energetic, some of the rhythms like that familiar sort-of backward reggae beat show up on a couple tracks, and others that one may have heard before; sparkling synth multicolored stars oscillate and light up the sky while bubbles of circular currents turn and twist while colors drip down the periphery. The effect is completely immersive; one will get lost in this beautiful maze, and at many points along this journey Wynne reminds the world of what a great guitar player he is. This is the real deal, superb from beginning to end.

Filed under: New releases, 2019 releases

Related artist(s): Ed Wynne

 

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