MY BROTHER THE WIND – Once There Was A Time When Time And Space Were One (Free Electric Sound/The Laser’s Edge)

Coming at things in a beautifully seductive kind of way, My Brother The Wind’s ‘Once There Was A Time When Time And Space Were One’ – maybe unsurprisingly – occupies a pseudo-psychedelic twilight zone bounded at one end by an ambient, laid-back, easy listening almost Gong-like aura (‘Misty Mountainside’) and at the other by the kind of driving space ritual purveyed by Hawkwind at their most feisty (‘Song Of Innocence Part 1’).

Wholly instrumental, ‘Once There Was A Time…’ (the band’s third album) was recorded live with no overdubs on 26 January 2013, giving it a feeling of both spontaneity and looseness, although having to switch instruments as recording progressed might have been a bit stress-inducing for the musicians at times. Given the depth of the music, the variety of the material on offer and the perfection of its execution it is probably to no great wonderment to discover that My Brother The Wind are Swedish, and that the four band members – Mathias Danielsson, Nicklas Barker, Ronny Eriksson and Daniel Fridlund Brandt – all have day jobs in other renowned progressive rock/metal outfits in their homeland. It’s an album to listen to, rather than just hear, as the instrumentation is beguiling and at times almost hypnotic; and its centre-piece, the slow-burning ‘Garden Of Delights’, is well worth immersing yourself in, the twelve-minute song being the aural equivalent of a sensual massage.

Nothing to fault, everything to praise: ‘Once There Was A Time…’ is a fabulous album. Trust me on this.