Berlin’s Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra returns with its fourth album “Vula”. Having celebrated their 10-year anniversary with a stunning series of concerts in 2016, the 18-piece’s new full-length showcases a stronger focus on harmony and melody – and yet AMEO sound no less explosive or unpredictable than before.

It arrives gently, with shimmering lights, soft winds, sashaying melodies, and of course, the isotherms and isotheres function just as they should: All of a sudden, lighting strikes amid the concord of instruments, unforeseen energies erupt and upset the rhythmic scenery with elemental force. Making a combined effort to create sheltering patches of harmony within the unfolding drama, leader Daniel Glatzel and his 18-piece “working band” set out to harness album #4: VULA

Another musical tour de force that connects too many dots, decades, traditions and genres to mention, “Vula” is quite a different beast compared to its live predecessor or the orchestra’s last studio effort “Bum Bum” (2012): There’s bigger, bolder strokes, and the compositions are linked by recurring motifs and harmonies, which is why the new LP sounds like one entity: It is ONE hour-long adventure that needs to be listened to in full. “Listeners who just dip in and out won’t be able to grasp it, I’m afraid,” says Glatzel. “It takes concentrated listening, from beginning to end, with decent sound, to achieve that. And of course it sounds somewhat anachronistic, but it actually reflects the working process, because there were so many complications and obstacles we had to clear during the five years in which we worked on ‘Vula’. And yet, despite all the hullaballoo I felt inspired to see it through: simply because the music seemed to say ‘if you can’t devote yourself to this, you’re lost; but if you can, you’re bound to .......
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