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Moonsoon — East of Asteroid
(Apollon Records ARP083, 2025, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-05-13

East of Asteroid Cover art

Many listeners of progressive rock are familiar with an album called 801 Live. In fact, it’s generally regarded as an essential classic of the genre. One of that album’s best tracks is called “East of Asteroid,” a high-energy instrumental workout featuring a killer rhythm section of Simon Phillips on drums and Bill MacCormick on bass. Well, aside from sharing a title, that has nothing to do with this new album by the band Moonsoon. Maybe Moonsoon’s Helge Nyheim saw that title and wondered what kind of lyrics could be written to go with it — I don’t know. As it turns out, this East of Asteroid is a solidly enjoyable album in the general category of Pink Floyd inflected modern prog, which means it takes more from Wish You Were Here and Animals than it does from the earlier or later Floyd albums. But Nyheim and collaborator Daniel Hauge also draw from other sources, such as Yes by way of recent bands like Dobbeltgjenger (a band Hauge has produced) and Arabs in Aspic. Nyheim and Hauge recruited a number of prominent (mostly) Norwegian musicians to contribute to the album: Ian Ritchie, Kjetil Møster, Bjarte Aasmul, Eric Campbell, Egil Hauge, Helge Haugland, Inge Rypdal, Kai Taule, Marie Moe, Bastian Veland, Ivar Kolve, and Sharon Gaynor. Certainly it’s impeccably played and produced, and the compositions are good as well, with plenty of variety in mood, sound, and energy, from atmospheric washes to pounding rock workouts, and the frequent presence of Møster’s sax heightens the intensity. So often a sax in rock leans more on the blues than on anything more experimental, but those familiar with his work know that Møster is not a straight blues guy. All around, Moonsoon’s debut is a fine example of modern progressive rock.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Kjetil Møster, Moonsoon

More info
http://moonsoon1.bandcamp.com/album/east-of-asteroid

 

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