The short track is called "The Green Mushroom", and it describes a surreal desert trip. The song represents the partly absurd humour of Alexander Djelassi and Dirk Raupach alias Sounds Of New Soma. Other songs on her recently released album "La Grande Bellezza" have titles like "Bundesgartenschau '71", "Schwurbel" or - named after a bizarre Japanese community - "Garten des Lichts". "We like something like that", says Raupach, who also runs the label Tonzonen Records. Djelassi adds: "This aspect is very important, also to put the complex structures of our songs into perspective"
Like its predecessors, the new album also indulges in more than forty-year-old cosmic sounds. "The leitmotif is certainly the kraut rock of the seventies, in which electronic sounds had just as much justification as spacer rock or psychedelic folk," explains Djelassi. "All this always without compulsion and also with pleasure sometimes improvises." Raupach: "The tracks often emerge in the flow of the moment. A clear idea of what a track should sound like usually only develops during the course of the creation process. We like the sound of those bands, that's a fact. Basically, we see ourselves as a free-spirited sound project."
"La Grande Bellezza", the great beauty - not only a beautiful, but also an indeed fitting title for the album. "Beauty always lies in the listener's ear, of course," replies Djelassi. "It can sometimes hide or develop and is always a subjective sensation." He also described the album aptly, because besides all the crooked and weird sounds Sounds Of New Soma develop moments of sheer elegance here again and again. And that's seventy-seven minutes, after all. Djelassi is responsible for the first base tracks, the final mix and the production. In between, the duo work on the pieces together. Who would like to experience the Sounds Of New Soma live - has bad luck. Raupach: "Actually, SONS is designed as a studio project, but there are more and more requests."
* * * Bernd Sievers
