The Shadow Behind the Sun By Cu-Sithe

 

The Shadow Behind the Sun

By

Cu-Sithe

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

There is a different style emitting from the New Age genre, I’ve really noticed its acceleration even more lately, and this mixture of Electronic music and Progressive rock is creating some very tasty music to be enjoyed by us ever eager listeners. The Shadow Behind The Sun may well be an example of this, by creator Cu-Sithe, (pronounced Q She), The Shadow Behind The Sun is not only an album to watch, but one to dive headlong into, as it has something for just about everyone.

A smart space styled intro creates our portal into this collection of great music, and the first glorious offering greets our ears with the track Through a Sea of Stars, a truly fluent composition with a segment of layered and textured EM patterns, and mixed with a little Floyd styled guitar ethic, it really is a treat and a fantastic place to start.

The shorter arrangement of Coming Down is now upon us and its diminutive stature time wise, is a complete distraction from the breath taking and powerful resonance piece that it truly is, one that drives us into one of the most amazingly powerful offerings on the album in The Eye at the Heart. Once more the keyboards and electric guitar magic of Cue Sithe work their spell wonderfully, creating for us a moving opus of colour through music, and the resultant piece is like mixing Oldfield with Floyd, and that can’t be at all bad.

The addictive nature of this next piece is something I think I will be visiting many times over in the next few weeks, and is entitled The Depths. The gentle efforts here actually manifest something vast, yet comforting, the electronic wizardly and guitar, wend their way through the very depths of a grand musical ocean; if there happens to be a producer of graphic seascapes reading this, then this title and track may well be one you might like to look at using, it is most certainly cinematic in quality.

As we glide into the second half of the album we come across one of the most dramatic tracks off the release and entitled The Swarm. A sense of movement can be found within this piece, and the synths manifest a strangely warm atmosphere to this arrangement. The guitar and pertinent bass line manifest what in my view, would be a good single to release; a very memorable offering indeed.

The ethereal nature behind Pulsar is fascinating and calming, but distinctive percussion can also be found here, in a track that seems to hover above and all around us. Note please, the slow but crafted build and progression of this arrangement, it is simply a wonderful thing to behold, and at times reminds me of the old style new age works of Medwyn Goodall.

The energy picks up for the next offering entitled The Birthplace of Stars. The space ethic is back and in full flow, and a vast array of synths build a piece for us that has an undeniably empowering soundscape to enjoy, we could easily be travelling from the heart of a super nova and into a stellar nursery with ease.

Timestream continues the irrepressible pace, and now the mixture of prog, new age and EM is complete within its musical construct. This is one amazing offering without doubt, and a really stand out piece off the release; the symbiotic partnership of electronics, guitar and keyboards is something to really enjoy here.

Our penultimate track is called The Long Grey Shadow, a really clever creation can be found here, the musical narrative is strong, the sense of a quickening, a fast movement and an arrival, can all be found on this highly rated and wonderfully manifested piece, and as we stand at the portal of completion we have the chance to start all over again, but please listen to the audio within this track, your own analysis will make this clearer.

The preceding offering leads us perfectly into the captain’s chair for this next and final arrangement called First Flight. The energy generated here by a full flowing electric guitar pushes us onwards and into regions of space as of yet unvisited by humanity, this is indeed an amazing way to leave the album, but one that is so good, it may well have opened a rift in space and time for us to perhaps explore even more.

The Shadow Behind the Sun by Cu-Sithe has to be the most original album I have heard this year in any genre without doubt. There is so much to enjoy and like about this release, the performance and production quality is perfect, each track artistically creates its narrative from start to finish without ever being too long or too short, and the whole album itself is a tale from beginning to end, so much so, that you really will never want to miss a single second of its brilliance.  There is in fact a story that comes with the offering, so you may want to read that as you listen for yourself to the whole album.

The Shadow Behind the Sun by Cu-Sithe is a thoroughly recommended album indeed.