Beneath Another Sky by Bjørn Lynne

While I enjoy Bjorns ventures into other genres, such as the hip Statement and soothing "Soothe" (parden the pun) I still prefer his proggressive rock/electronica work purely because it's unlike anything else out there. Sure, you can compare it to Vangelis, Pink Floyd, Christopher Franke - But Bjorn offers his own unique flavours in each and every album, and it's those flavours that always bring me back to his work. It never fails to take you to another world, and that's something progrock & Bjorn does best." - Pete Baker, UK

"This CD, like many other Bjorn Lynne releases, really is a pearl. It starts warm and atmospheric with some kind of wind blowing in the background that creeps around your neck, taking you on a journey full of adventure and unseen places. The beautiful backside cover art of the CD (which unfortunately isn’t visible here) seems to illustrate the feelings that I have when listening to the opening track. At its end, no silence interrupts the wonderful ambience but instead, exactly like on the album “The Void”, the tracks melt into each other. The journey doesn’t stop with a cut - instead you experience a soft transition to another place. The next track, Starfield, is definitely my favourite one. It’s spacy, mysterious, slowly developing and the part that starts at 2:16 simply makes me shiver and causes the little hair on my arms to stand up. Fortunately, Bjorn made this one freely downloadable for you to check out - give it a try! Just to shorten this review a little... the album is amazing! It’s diverse, uplifting, interesting, electronic, musically ambitious and technically brilliant! You can lie in the dark with your headphones on and listen to it with full attention or just play it in the background when your friends are on a visit. The style is a good mixture between synthetic instruments and effects and acoustic elements, but still mainly electronic. If you are almost exclusively into music solely played with real instruments or into live recorded music, this CD might not be the right choice for you. If you like Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Pink Floyd or simply the other CDs from Bjorn Lynne like “Dreamstate”, “Revive”, “The Void”, “Colony” or “The Gods Awaken”, this is a must have album for you! In my opinion, this one is some kind of a mixture between these Bjorn Lynne CDs. It’s as original as “Dreamstate” and “Revive”, has the atmosphere of “The Void” and “Colony” and the brilliant sound mixture and diversity of “The Gods Awaken”! When I first saw the tracklist in the newsletters, I thought that the last two tracks, remixes of preceding tracks, were just gap filling stuff to extend the CD to the maximum playing duration. But now I must revise this thought - they are great, almost completely different songs with every right to be on the CD! Especially the second one, “Over Distant Shores - Ambient remix” gives a warm and atmospheric ending and each time I feel a little sad when it finally fades out - a perfect reason to play the CD again. :-) The duration of the album is over 79 minutes and full of interesting music - you simply can’t get more for your money. Thanks for another masterpiece, Bjorn!" - Andreas Benden, Germany

"Bjorn is back to his fave progrock/electronica genre with this great CD that has been, on and off, four years in the making. Truth be told, it's not as energy-charged as The Void, it's actually more on the ambient side of Colony. Still, Beneath Another Sky is an awe-inspiring album that I can't recommend enough." - Patrice Aubry, France

"BJORN LYNNE: Beneath Another Sky

The latest in a long line of synth albums from this electronic musician whose work has been of a quite high consistency for a long time, but not without its lapses along the way. Which makes the fact that this is his most accomplished album for a while, to be regarded as a welcome addition to your listening pleasure. Using an arsenal of synths, sequencers, electronic (or programmed) drums and guitars, this is clearly a case of a musician who has listened to and absorbed over thirty years of synth and progressive music, and has created music that is most definitely his own, while at the same time exhibiting a lot of qualities from the last three decades of synth music greats but at no time making it so obvious that you say "that bit sounds like……." As a result, you have here a twelve track, seventy nine minute album that remains consistent throughout. Most tracks revolve around an ocean of rhythms, often using beefy sequencer lines or strong-sounding electronic drums, while on top are layered string synths, lead synth melodies, flowing lead synths and extra rhythmic additions to propel the tracks to even greater heights. While full of tunes and melodies, it's also full of feeling and atmosphere, with the rhythms providing a backbone that keeps it all together while at the same time not at any point diminishing the effect of the lead work. Most of the tracks are completely addictive and yet at the same time, strong and distinctive, so that you can be into anything from Jarre and Vangelis through Tangerine Dream and Pickford, to Oldfield and Pink Floyd, and still get maximum enjoyment out of this wholly instrumental and quite epic album." - Andy Garibaldi, UK

Average Customer Review: 4