New Alchemy - On the Other Side of the Light

by Lisa Torem

published: 10 / 1 / 2014

New Alchemy - On the Other Side of the Light

Label: Subliminal Sounds
Format: CD

Flawed and self-indulgent yet frequently gripping 60’s-influenced psychedelia on debut album from the New Alchemy, the current band of former Soundtrack of Our Lives front man Ebbot Lundberg

Review

Swedish Ebbot Lundberg fronted Union Carbide before enjoying a creative career as lead singer/performer in the Soundtrack of Our Lives. Per Svensson also graced the stage in the 80s at Gothenburg’a Radium 226.05 as poet and sound artist. Saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, Sonic Youth, and Patrik Caganis, also a member of Union Carbide Productions complete the quartet, entitled the New Alchemy. Lundberg says, “We’ve been living parallel lives for a while…but now we have finally decided to collaborate and put our ideas, our density and our gravity together.” Their new album, ‘The Other Side of the Light’, is released by Subliminal Sounds, a label promoting Swedish psychedelia. On drums is Clay Ketter. The idea is to have a bunch of rotating artists join the ensemble in the years to come. The album consists of five tracks. The first, ‘Solar Eclipse’ was recorded live at Ales Stenar. For the first few minutes, you may find yourself scratching your head because it sounds more like a random cacophony of almost undistinguishable John Cage-like sounds than an actual song or performance piece. ‘Creatures’, ‘The Other Side of Light’ and ‘Silver Chain’ run for more than five minutes. ‘Extra Terrestrial Blues’ is a self-indulgent 24 minutes. There are great moments where the band sounds like they are channeling Jim Morrison and where the groove gets heated and hypnotic. They have definitely captured the lofty spirit of psychedelia with their long brooding passages and sense of abandonment. But towards the end, the band seems to rely too much on the formula and not enough on actually manufacturing new ideas, so the second half lacks lustre. Still, Lundberg was a phenomenal tour de force in the Soundtrack of Our Lives and it’s only a matter of time before The New Alchemy finesse their focus and bring forth some truly imaginative collaborations. They’ve got the talent; they just need to stay with the magic.