Sun Voyager: Album Review
Sun Voyager: Album Review
Sun Voyager’s upcoming release of its self-titled album on October 7th this year is an invigorating blend of nostalgic psychedelia and modern psych-rock that dabblers and connoisseurs alike will appreciate. The band’s music has been compared to contemporary psychedelic rock staples like Dead Meadow and Earthless. While bands like Earthless tend towards vast instrumental exploration, Sun Voyager’s sound more directly hearkens back to classic psychedelic rock. The 13th Floor Elevators and Syd Barrett-fronted Pink Floyd come readily to mind. The adrenaline-coursing sound of Sun Voyager comes with modern psych-rock evolution and a style that is authentically their own. The band is making its way as a robust trio comprised of Carlos Valle on guitar and vocals, Stefan Mersch on bass, and Kyle Beach on drums.
Formed in 2012, the members of Sun Voyager paid their dues in New York’s Hudson Valley music scene, long considered to be an incubator of experimental psychedelic rock. After the release of their 2018 debut album Seismic Vibes, the band’s relentless touring provided the laboratory
Sun Voyager’s sound more directly hearkens back to classic psychedelic rock.
in which they have refined their sound. Listening to the new album, one will take notice of a masterful formula. Sometimes when we hear the word “formula,” we may think of it as limiting. This is not so for Sun Voyager. They have been able to assemble a framework that their talents sear through.
In an early-released track from the upcoming album, “God is Dead II,” one immediately recognizes the pounding bass and haunting vocals for which Sun Voyager is known. The beginning of the song is riff-driven, pushing listeners into an exhilarating free fall. Halfway through the song, a wider psychedelic space opens, pulling the rip cord on our parachutes as we float pleasantly in the air. The psychedelic space expands until the driving riff returns to provide a steady landing.
Sun Voyager bassist and backing vocalist Stefan Mersch recalls in an interview with Hudson Valley One magazine a piece of advice Doug Sabolik of the band Ecstatic Vision gave him back in 2009: “When you find that riff that just hits, you can play it forever.” This seems to be advice the band took to heart. The tracks on the new album are built around these addictive hooks. On “To Hell We Ride,” the band locks in on one of these melodies and we get to experience just how tight they can be. Within the band’s tried-and-true blueprint, we are dropped into a more open space in the middle of the song, rendering slight variations on the hook. Then, returning to the proper hook, the band locks in again for a powerful ending.
On “Some Strange,” one notices the tasteful guitar tones of guitarist/vocalist Carlos Valle. This is not a player who is overdoing it with lead notes. He is subtly exploring guitar sounds that are interesting and thought-provoking. In this way, Valle stands apart from other guitarists. He is using his instrument in a unique and creative way as his distinctive personal style.
The Covid-19 pandemic may have limited the band’s ability to perform live in recent years, but Mersch also recalls in his interview with Hudson Valley One that the lockdowns afforded them time to master the craft of their songwriting. The songs on this album are songs truly written together as a band. Of the new album, Sun Voyager remarks that much of the inspiration for the music, “is pulled from wild 15-minute-long voice memo jams where the three of us find the pocket, and you should have been there.”
There’s a fascinating dichotomy in Sun Voyager’s music between the sections that make you want to run around like a maniac or bask in delightful insanity and the spacey infinitudes in which one can easily lose their mind in reverie. It creates an experience that is both engaging and freeing.
Personally, one of my favorite things about listening to music is its ability to carry me away. A good song can take me to a sanctuary within me where I’m both present in the moment and completely timeless. Sun Voyager’s music provides the space to daydream. Its ability to pull us back from the brink with its grounding riffs is what makes it complete. The track, “Rip the Sky” begins with menacing, ominous themes, which are alluring in the same way good horror movies are. The ethereal vocals come in and they have a peculiar centering effect. The song has elements that orient us in the music, before taking us on a ride. The ride brings us full-circle back to the grounding themes from the beginning. In this way, Sun Voyager’s music really does feel like a voyage around the sun and back.
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