Genre:  Ambient / IDM

01 Lift Off
02 Welcome to Space
03 Stellar Configuration
04 Natural Satellite
05 Polaris Theme
06 EVA Dance
07 Sunrise from the Stars
08 Return to the Moon
09 Orion Arm
10 UFO’s Over the ISS
11 Watching the Aurora
12 Gliese 581 D
13 Space Junk 1970
14 Reentry
15 Return to the Sky

It is true; humankind was more positive 40 years ago. Perhaps this has always been a consequence of their naïveté and innocence. But nevertheless where there is all that positivism that marked an epoch? What ever happened with the utopias for ultra advanced societies, interplanetary travels, universal excursions and peaceful objectives? Where are our dreams as specie, as civilization? Our paradigms for a better future seem to be dead as products of the dystopic present we live into we seem to be unable to really consider the possibility of a better world anymore. The greatest goals we can plan these days are related with mere survival, the delay of a nuclear confrontation and the reparation of the damage caused to nature through technocratic implementations, ultimately we just expect that everything goes well after all and we don’t face major scale extinction with our fingers crossed. On the other hand, we have forgotten completely our universal goal, focused on the day-to-dayness from our prosaic lives, our reduced horizons engulfed by our consumerist mannerisms and the complete alienation that comes from our perpetual bombardment on politic minutiaes. There was a time when technology was perceived as our main promise for a better future, instead we have made of it a monument for enslavement, intellectual sterilization and massive destruction of life. So far we are not even sure of its positive usage anymore. But technology it is indeed our greatest achievement and our only possibility to escape extinction, not to mention to finally open our eyes to the magnificent enigmatic place we are immersed into, the cosmos.

Polestar Aka Jon Elliot from the UK reminds us through their highly intelligent music the open dimension we had back in the days where our thoughts were more positive about our destiny and the infinite options we had with technology, above all our expansion in the galaxy and the contact with other life forms. The music tells about this incredible excursions and positive utopias, keeping a warm, confident and extremely dynamic perspective on the music contained. Now let’s go backwards in time, many vanguardists and settlers from early electronica seem to be fundamentally influential on Polestar. The futurologist aspect akin with Kraftwerk, which shows that often kitsch aesthetic on the future imagined and the unlimited positive foresights from technology to humankind while at the same time presents the robotized routine that human life has become into. The vast and often visionary aural paintings from Vangelis found on the Heaven & hell era, universal, ignote, atmospherically cosmic and the Wendy Carlos/Isao Tomita beautiful brushstrokes full of colour coming in like a flow of electronic tonalities, intrepid arrangements and variations. It is rather clear; a fusion from all these aspects could just be a great thing, and it does. The openener “Lift off” takes the listener immediately to the place that Polestar navigates in. A profusion of analog beeps progressing in an unrelentless cascade of forms accompanied with a glitch rhythm set in vital logic, undulating in waves of structured melody, clever arrangements, soothing and seductive setting the listener in a nostalgic mood of old utopias. “Stellar configuration” follows the pattern with even more versatile variations on the analog configuration, extremely harmonic and moving in a very kraftwerkian way, the beeps transcends the boundaries of dispersed notes and suddenly become a constant melodic flow that transport the listener way beyond the remote corners of galactic landscapes, this song is an instant classic. “Polaris theme” took the glitch to the next level, virtual funkiness, chopping rhythms and clicks, derived in crazy sonic movements with melodies balancing a well relaxed background comes as the real promissory spawn that Polestar really is. There is magic in through the entire sonic excursion from “Star expanses” comprehending a set of tracks that could be considered as the new offspring of classic electronica, full of old school mood but moved starting from the IDM mechanics that synthesize its novelty.

Polestar is all a retro-futuristic feeling aligned with modern compositor tendencies represented in a new set of apparatus and modern electronica twists merging with old style analog electronica creations, highly intelligent music, this is electronica with a progressive heart as much as form as in content which makes of it a constant ace on the listener’s best interest. Their sympathy for melody condensed in stylized arpeggios adorned by the intricate and often out of hand rhythmic arrangements that comes from the glitch movement gives that special touch of controlled awkwardess in the cadence, their ambient lines seldom prolific and picturesque, brings beautiful images of space landscapes seen through the window from a spaceship. Space expanses sails with us to the imaginary of our wildest utopias, preserving a nice touch of seriousness while maintaining a smart use of rhythm to propel its travel. Let’s go backwards and retake the path we’ve lost!