ea012 - Magnetic Wind - Astral Vortexes

Blood1000 (c) 2012
A great piece of electronic elegance. Fans of ethereal drift and electronica will want to add this little gem to their collection.

Astral Vortices begins with Infinity which evokes a sense of travelling, of discovery. The track begins with some quality electronic ambience. After a few minutes the beat kicks in and the track acquires a sense of joy and is quite uplifting. Following this is Contact, which contains regular hisses/static, just like those you associate with the manoeuvring jets on spacecraft seen in sci-fi films or what you’d expect to hear when turning the dial on a radio, searching for signals. These overlay some lightly upbeat synth sounds that gently carry the tune, and slowly become quite ethereal towards the end of the track.

Journey starts on the shore where waves rhythmically wash over shingle and bird calls can be heard. Slightly inquisitive, certainly exploratory, the track represents, according to Magnetic Wind, the journey of “an individual starting on earth, getting lost in the earthen ocean and being transported out and beyond the horizon to a greater sea of atmosphere in the universe”. Epic. And it works :)

The slow downtempo beat of Gravity gently picks you up and prepares you for waves of slow luxuriant sound that make for a particularly serious track. Bliss takes the listener back to the shore and the dazzle of sunlight through sprays of water. Light and gentle. Smiles and Sunshine :)

Satellite brings to mind the icy coldness of space. This gave me a real sense of travelling and seeing, more than the others, and remains upbeat. Two more tracks maintain the same pleasant atmosphere, Sonic Lullaby and The World Below. Both help finish the album on a gentle tide of ethereal sounds.

The album is quite obviously centered around travelling, and Magnetic Wind takes us on a journey through the universe. She says that at the time she wrote this she’d wanted to do a ‘space drift’ album that was “drift, ethereal and free floating through space”, designed to take you into the ether, beyond the physical state and which would allow the listener to “explore space”. Each track is designed to describe a singular Astral Vortice, or “universal journey”, which is what the whole album is about.

What I really like about Astral Vortices is the genuine ethereal nature of the sound. This is brilliant electronic ambience. Sometimes, electronic ambience can sound really cheesey, but Astral Vortices rises up above the rest. It captures the attention and tweaks the imagination in a positive way. If you like classic electronic and enjoy ethereal sounds, you’ll feel positvely relaxed and re-charged after listening to this. Magnetic Wind has a philosophy based on finding beauty in the inner self and discovering beauty in others, and her music illustrates this wonderfully.

Released during 2010, Astral Vortices is available from Endless Ascent. To listen to other music by Magnetic Wind, check out her Bandcamp page and to keep up with the here and now that is Magnetic Wind, read all about her on Facebook (see below).

From Magnetic Wind’s About Me on Facebook: Official Page for Magnetic Wind (Ottawa/Choctaw) -one woman electroaccoustic, ambient, new age project in the U.S. Magnetic Wind, acting as a conduit for the sacred, creates soulfully, spiritually uplifting, music and video with the power of the universe to revel in beauty inside you.

Big thanks go to Magnetic Wind for providing some background information on the album

[Edit April 2012]

Magnetic Wind is now Mesawzee. You can follow her work as Mesawzee on Bandcamp, too






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Endless Ascent releases are free to download under a Creative Commons License.