Astral Magic to Release Magical Kingdom June 10
The title-cut is one of three tracks streaming now from Astral Magic‘s upcoming full-length, Magical Kingdom, but it’s worth noting that it’s also the opener and it begins the record in proggias res with brightly toned guitar and a classical kind of dreaminess. You’ll probably also want to take note of the part below where it says that project mastermind and spearhead Santtu Laakso has written over 300 songs in two years’ time. What this frankly absurd bit of productivity tells me is that there’s plenty more to come from Astral Magic and that even as these songs carve out a specifically prog-psych operational sphere, that aural persona is just as likely to change as subsequent offerings are carved from out of the glut of material. Unless dude scraps everything and just keeps writing new stuff, save those other 292 tracks for a rainy day or some such.
Either way, preorders are up for Magical Kingdom, and the gates are nothing if not open and waiting for you to enter this particular world of Laakso‘s (and select company’s) making.
The PR wire has it like this:
Psychedelic Prog Rock Project ASTRAL MAGIC To Release New Album Magical Kingdom on Tonzonen Records.
Astral Magic is the new solo project by Santtu Laakso aka Dj Astro. His debut for Tonzonen Records titled Magical Kingdom will be released on limited edition vinyl on June 10th.
Listen to the title track here: https://darksun.bandcamp.com/track/magical-kingdom
Santtu used to play bass and Moog in Finnish psychedelic space rock band Dark Sun. Astral Magic has no definitive style or form, but everything is and will be spacey and psychedelic. Since the project was started in March 2020, over 300 tracks have been created. Some of the tracks are cosmic, ambient excursions into other dimensions, some are more space/ kraut/ psych/ prog rocking in the vein of Hawkwind, Gong, Eloy, Pink Floyd, NEU! etc. Santtu’s international musician friends are often asked to join in the recordings.
Magical Kingdom can be considered as the first psychedelic prog rock album by Astral Magic. The listener is taken into another mysterious, magical world.
Listen to Seven Planes here: https://darksun.bandcamp.com/track/seven-planes
Other musicians on the album include multi-instrumentalist Jay Tausig (US, drums, guitar, saxophone, flute), Gregory Curvey (US, guitar, glockenspiel), Peter Bingham (UK, guitar), Markku Helin (FI, guitar), Anton Barbeau (US, guitar) and Perttu Lindberg (FI, drums).
Magical Kingdom was recorded and mixed in 2020-2021 and mastered by the kraut rock legend Eroc for maximum sound quality.
Preorder is live here: https://www.tonzonen.de/shop/
Artist: Astral Magic
Title: Magical Kingdom
Format: LP, Digital
Label: Tonzonen Records
Distribution: Soulfood Music
Genre: Psychedelic Prog Rock
Release Date: 17/06/2022
Tracklist
1. Magical Kingdom
2. Dimension Link
3. On Hollow Land
4. Rainbow Butterfly
5. Lost Innocence
6. The Hidden City
7. The Pale-skinned Man
8. Planes
https://facebook.com/AstralMagicMusic
https://darksun.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Tonzonen/
https://www.instagram.com/tonzonenrecords/
https://www.tonzonen.de
