Sunrise Auranaut – The First Cosmic (2015)

Sunrise Auranaut is a studio project by Russian multi-instrumentalist Vitaly Kiselev. Kiselev doesn’t only write the music, but he also recorded, mixed and produced the album. He also made the artwork for the albums, so you can better call him a multi-talent and not just a multi-instrumentalist!

The First Cosmic is Kiselev’s third studio album. The album is completely instrumental. The music really reminds me of 70s Prog and Space Rock, like Mike Oldfield and Eloy. Some keyboard parts really remind me of ELP as well.

I will cut straight to the point; I have mixed feelings about the album. I had no idea that the bass and drums are digital recordings, which is a big plus. If you listen more precisely you can hear that the bass and drums are ‘not real’. Sadly the bass and drums don’t have not much variation in sound during the whole album, while the guitars and keyboards do. The guitar sounds he uses remind me of the guitar sounds Mike Oldfield uses on his earlier albums. The music is lovely but sometimes loses my attention and I have the feeling that Kiselev has more to offer. The mix and production are good could have been better. He wants to accomplish it all on his own but he cannot quite live up to it during some moments in the music. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but what would it sound like if he had (guest) musicians, playing the bass guitar and drums, and someone who did (or help with) the recording/mixing/producing?

The album begins very promising with the track Amazing Universe. It starts with distorted guitar and a haunting classic organ sound, and later it turns out to be a good track that has the early 70’s Prog feel. The second track, Incarnation Calls, is a nice up tempo track. Lost In Deep Space bring back the mellowness during the album, while The Cycles of Desires is pretty rough again. We Will Meet At The Spaceport is quite trippy but cool. Pristine Planet is a nice track starting with an acoustic guitar and later makes you float around the stars and planets. Nonstop is actually a pretty groovy track, becomes more rock-ish halfway and becomes groovy again. The track Gravity has a very cool intro with a rocking guitar sound, but later it turns into a softer track, while I actually hoped that he rocking guitar would stay during the whole song. The track Atmosphere And Vacuum is a good track, and has a nice haunting surprise halfway. Some weird haunting industrial machine-like sound breaks up the song and then it becomes another track. At the end of the song there’s another weird noise again and the track ends with the same music the song has begun. The track The Threshold is very spacy. The last track, The Wisdom Of Mother Earth, is my favourite track from the album. The Mike Oldfield guitar sound is so lovely and the organs quite catchy. This is also a track that shows he is capable of doing more than what most of the album has offered.

The album is just over an hour long, and it’s a bit too long for me. I don’t say it’s a bad album, absolutely not, but I really have the feeling that it can be much more than it is now. I’m actually looking forward when Kiselev would bring out a new album. And I have to say is “Keep up the good work, multi-talent Vitaly! I take my hat off to you sir!”

***+ Iris Hidding

Amazing Universe (10:20)
Incarnation Calls (3:25)
Lost In Deep Space (8:13)
The Cycle Of Desires (3:54)
We Will Meet At The Spaceport (5:14)
Pristine Planet (3:49)
Nonstop (3:04)
Gravity (6:59)
1. Accumulation
2. Drift Into Infinity
3. Collapse
4. Power In The Smallest Particles
Atmosphere And Vacuum (5:23)
The Threshold (6:47)
1. Unknown
2. The Duality Of All Images
3. Insight
The Wisdom Of Mother Earth (3:23)