Tarotplane - Horizontology (2021)

12th Isle warm up for a busy year with Tarotplane’s debut for the label, a lush side of kosmiche guitar and synth plumes primed for duvet diving

Leading down their mazy path from Christos Chondropoulos’ remarkable ‘On Nature’ LP, the Scottish clan hand over to Baltimore’s Tarotplane for a chimeric album spanning one side of pastoral pieces, and an expansive 18 minute B-side of oneiric immersion. They get top marks for the Brass Eye nod in the title of ’Shatner’s Bassoon’, which does actually sound a bit like the captain himself seducing a sultry 3-headed alien with his plugged in woodwind skills, while ‘Ritual Believer’ follows breezy rhythmic impulses to the iridescent fluter of ‘Ceramic Heartbreak.’

But it really all comes together in the creamy fluidity of the B-side’s 4-part, playthru suite of sky kissing arps, moonlit acoustic strums, and raga-like drone cadence.