Featuring experiments in sound and minimalist electronic arrangements, punctuated by audio-clips that hint at mischief, Kaleidomission plays like a lost soundtrack to an extra-terrestrial journey from a time unknown. Moments of darkness and stark beauty will linger with you long after the exit gates have closed.

There is a room in England somewhere, but it's nowhere to be seen. It exists only in the mind, and only in the mind of those that have been there.

Seems to be a common problem today, everybody's afraid of scientists. They seem to feel we know some sort-of deep dark secret about the mysteries of life.

Spacelab is Carl M Knott & Alistair Beech, 2002 - 2005.

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"A joint release by the ever-dependable Wormhole World and HREA’M labels for Spacelab, a mysterious electronic project with absolutely no biographical backstory. Containing 36 short tracks, Kaleidomission is an exercise in plunderphonic dexterity, taking in freaky little segments of speech or birdsong culled from the ether, wonky loops of jazz drumming and ambient texture like ‘We Love Can’ and ‘Astral Dynamics’ that sound like they’re being broadcast from a broken AM transmitter in the overgrown grounds of Aleister Crowley’s house. The title of the standout skewed electronica of ‘Fucked Casio Melody’ requires no further explanation. Released October 16 2020."

furtherdot.com/2020/10/25/shots-immy-spacelab-lagoss-john-frusciante-snowdrops-body-negative-paradise-cinema-espen-eriksen-trio/

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"I was a bit thrown when I saw the number of tracks on this release — 35 — but they're all quite short and it absolutely flies by. I should be honest and say the first time I listened to this I had an album of field recordings playing in a separate window, which only added to the experience. It's that kind of "World of Tomorrow"-style weird electronics, strange samples and extra-terrestrial vibery. One track features a recording of a man saying: "Seems to be a common problem today, everybody's afraid of scientists. They seem to feel we know some sort of deep dark secret about the mysteries of life." PRESCIENT."

bandcloud.org/bc315/

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"A sort of Faust Tapes of out-of-context dialogue samples, fucked-with drum breaks and Kosmische otherworldliness, the new experimental album from Spacelab runs through a thirty-nine spanning track list of fleeting incipient ideas and the strange. Some of which last less time than it takes to pronounce the title. There’s even tracks that seem to exist purely for their visual mirrored effect on Soundcloud: The piques of the reversed then switched back around ‘Goodbye’ creating a nice symmetrical image.

“The soundtrack to an extra-terrestrial journey from a time unknown”, Kaleidomission runs and also peruses a both thoughtful and more oft-hand exploration of minimalism, ambient and cosmic dreamy space music. Early traces of Popol Vuh (before the heavens parted era), Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Mythos and, well, a Kosmische(olgy) of inter-dimensional travellers can be heard permeating this galaxy quest. There’s even a title nod to those miscreants of Krautrock and beyond, Faust (‘We Love Faust’) that kind of orbits their sphere of magic box sonic experimentation: Spacelab’s homage features a repeating timeless acoustic guitar motif that echoes against a rising and falling away ambient field of melodious illusions.

Those titles more or less sum up the intention behind each of these acid tripping film dialogue snatches, majestic floats through the heavens, crystal mirages and more cartoon scores. Some act as a breather, whilst other leaps out of a mystique void. There are also spells of a supernatural kind (an obvious one, ‘Trick The Devil’) to be found in the album’s darker recesses.

From lunar caves to magic woods, astral gateways and the fatuous, Spacelab prove sonically creative and mischievous in producing a cosmology of investigation worthy of attention. It’s Kosmische music but not quite as we know it."

monolithcocktail.com/2020/10/20/tickling-our-fancy-093-epic45-iklan-aquiles-navarro-tcheser-holmes-sebastian-reynolds/

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"It is very enticing to make a project that flows as seamlessly as possible. In popular music, whatever appeases the casual listener is paramount. In more esoteric experimental music, the drive to make something immersive usually guides the artist into soft and subtle transitions. Spacelab seeks to actively subvert this kind of approach on the new release from record label Wormhole World. The project Kaleidomission pits short random soundbites between longer more musical movements, promising mysticism and disruption in equal measure.

The sound that is achieved is one of eerie dissonance and non-sequitur. Very contextual film and TV fragments are followed by swooping choruses of pads and other strange synthesised elements. The instruments waver slightly in the unpredictable air, never too sure whether they will be cut off or not. The tracks Bike and Gaia are some of our first examples of more expansive experiences. Metallic shrouds fall in reverse, an austere selection of notes control both of these tracks.

To go from clear and sometimes comedic snippets one minute to strange wallowing melodies the next takes a careful hand. It is a disrupted experience. It almost feels as though the longer tracks are the calculations and inner workings of some random memory bank as it works hard to cough up another strange soundbite.

Instruments feel pushed up against the gauze of the mix, teetering into distortion as Spacelab uses harsh and often defunct sound. We Love Can provides a respite from this close quarters sound for a while. Swirling phased pads spiral towards the listener, the artist opening up the frequency range a little.

At points, that eerie antiquated sound made popular by artists like Boards of Canada is clearly channeled. Raw noise left to fizzle and pulse, melodies on the fence between euphoria and anxiety, the sound is otherworldly and hypnotic. We Love Faust gives us what is probably the only clear use of organic instrumentation on the project. An acoustic guitar plucks between two emotive chords as muffled swirls of synth cavort and spiral behind. As the listener acclimatises to reversed sound and lo-fi recordings, they can hear a definite adoration of dramatic melodies. Vipassana focuses in on this beautiful backwards melody that clambers up high into the sky. Even though the tune is reversed, one can feel it is triumphant and emotional.

Kaleidomission sounds like a TV set that has been left on, deep in the dusty bowels of your old school. Crammed in and surrounded by other sets, it flicks from one channel to the next and emits creepy signals from out of nowhere. The soundbites of talking and laughter do invite a feeling of joviality, but these are washed away by the poignance of the longer, musical sections. The artist showcases a pure talent and an eagerness for engaging sounds and melodies. They shirk a pristine sound and submerge themselves in the decaying and defunct sound of old electronics."

www.listencorp.co.uk/post/kaleidomission-spacelab

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Released on Wormhole World, where the album is available on CD.
wormholeworld.bandcamp.com/album/kaleidomission

Released on Hreám Recordings, where the album is available on Cassette.
hream.bandcamp.com/album/kaleidomission

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