Absolute Elsewhere - In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976)
Absolute Elsewhere - In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976)
EAC | Flac(Image) + Cue + Log & MP3 CBR 320Kbps
2009 | Wounded Bird Records, WOU 6192 | RU | ~ 276 or 116 Mb | Artwork(jpg) -> 2.91 Mb
Space-Age, Prog Rock, Experimental
EAC | Flac(Image) + Cue + Log & MP3 CBR 320Kbps
2009 | Wounded Bird Records, WOU 6192 | RU | ~ 276 or 116 Mb | Artwork(jpg) -> 2.91 Mb
Space-Age, Prog Rock, Experimental
Keyboardist and flautist Paul Fishman's 1976 work `In Search of Ancient Gods', under the project name Absolute Elsewhere, is something of a minor classic of both spacey and symphonic instrumental progressive rock of the vintage era. Based on the pseudo-science/alternative history books inspired by the theories of author Erik von Daniken, `…Ancient Gods' enjoys something of a raised profile due to the drumming contributions of King Crimson/Yes member Bill Bruford, yet it still remains fairly obscure and something of a kept secret! Swamped in dreamy and lavish keyboards, the album houses everything from extravagant symphonic multi-part suites, drifting space-music electronics, shorter Rick Wakeman-esque fanfare interludes and experimental psychedelic fragments.
There's spacey whirring synths and glorious dreamy Mellotron-glossed themes aplenty throughout nine-minute opener `Earthbound', laced with a chilled-out Seventies coolness (some of it sounding like a template that French band Air would employ on their classic full-length debut `Moon Safari' in 1998, though it's likely a coincidence) that even calls to mind the fuzzy dreaminess of Bo Hansson's `Attic Thoughts', some laid-back drumming and drifting flute giving the piece a soft pattering of jazzy flavours, and a final run of electric guitar fire bringing a smouldering groove. Trickling subtle sequencer beats pan left and right throughout `Moon City's bleeding deep-space drones, and the near twelve-minute five-part suite `Miracle of the Gods' darts through everything from nightmarish electronic twitches and reprising soaring Mellotron/Moog themes in the manner of Pink Floyd, Novalis, Camel and Pulsar, delicately moving towards ethereal ambient paths and pristine piano ruminations in crucial little diversions.
The second side opens with two shorter interludes, `The Gold of the Gods' and `Tokleta', the first a whimsical and slightly kitsch synth fanfare, the latter a mysterious and softly melancholic Moog reflection. Two ten minute workouts close the album, first `Chariots of the Gods' opens as a subdued and melancholic Rick Wright-like piano reflection before revealing relaxed jazz/funk grooves, and `Return to the Stars' is a slowly revealing Tangerine Dream-like expansive distortion-laced ebbing electronic drone that is completely seductive, enveloping and deeply immersive.
Although there's some conflicting little passages and a few questionable production choices here and there (the pretend `stuck vinyl' fade-out halfway through `Chariots of the Gods' is a bit of a cop-out, and the little pieces that open the second side are somewhat out-of-place distractions!), `In Search of Ancient Gods' is mostly full of exquisite and grand instrumental symphonic music crossed with experimental and atmospheric electronics, with several truly jaw-dropping moments for lovers of lengthier keyboard and Mellotron-drenched grandiosity. This successful fusion of styles makes for an album that is so close to being an absolutely classic symphonic/chill-out/electronic crossover work, one well deserving of renewed attention for its own merits far beyond the contribution of a legendary drummer alone.
Four and a half stars.by Aussie-Byrd-Brother, progarchives
Absolute Elsewhere - In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976):
Absolute Elsewhere - In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976)
Tracklist:
01. Earthbound 09:01
a) Earthbound
b) Future Past
02. Moon City 04:45
03. Miracles Of The Gods 11:42
a) Miracles Of The Gods
b) El Endrillado
c) The Legend Of Santa Cruz
d) Pyramids Of Teotihuacan
e) Temple Of The Inscriptions
04. The Gold Of The Gods 02:36
05. Toktela 01:34
06. Chariots Of The Gods 09:22
07. Return To The Stars 10:14
Paul Fishman - synthesisers, sequencers, flute, electric and acoustic pianos, Mellotron, string synthesisers
William (Bill) Bruford - percussion
Phillip Saatchi - electric guitar
Jon Astrop - bass guitar
Kim Mackrell - cello on "Chariots Of The Gods"
Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
EAC extraction logfile from 29. January 2020, 12:54
Absolute Elsewhere / In Search Of Ancient Gods
Used drive : ASUS DRW-24D5MT Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 9:00.70 | 0 | 40569
2 | 9:00.70 | 4:44.54 | 40570 | 61923
3 | 13:45.49 | 11:42.11 | 61924 | 114584
4 | 25:27.60 | 2:36.16 | 114585 | 126300
5 | 28:04.01 | 1:33.57 | 126301 | 133332
6 | 29:37.58 | 9:21.50 | 133333 | 175457
7 | 38:59.33 | 10:14.11 | 175458 | 221518
Track 1
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\01 a) Earthbound; b) (Part 2) Future Past.wav
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Copy CRC BE16CF6A
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\02 Moon City.wav
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Extraction speed 1.4 X
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Copy CRC FF896F6A
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\03 Miracles Of The Gods.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
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Track quality 99.9 %
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Copy CRC AD9C0355
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\04 The Gold Of The Gods.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\05 Toktela.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 052F2D70
Copy CRC 052F2D70
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\06 Chariots Of The Gods.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4B1E7F6F
Copy CRC 4B1E7F6F
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\07 Return To The Stars.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: dix7pH5mnqUb5D3NxTINUX_qKRE-] disk not present in database
Submit result: dix7pH5mnqUb5D3NxTINUX_qKRE- has been uploaded
==== Log checksum 256CC333E542DBF04529D86B888C6AB2E2CB94DC7187EB9DFF71DB98C8E3C0EF ====
EAC extraction logfile from 29. January 2020, 12:54
Absolute Elsewhere / In Search Of Ancient Gods
Used drive : ASUS DRW-24D5MT Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 9:00.70 | 0 | 40569
2 | 9:00.70 | 4:44.54 | 40570 | 61923
3 | 13:45.49 | 11:42.11 | 61924 | 114584
4 | 25:27.60 | 2:36.16 | 114585 | 126300
5 | 28:04.01 | 1:33.57 | 126301 | 133332
6 | 29:37.58 | 9:21.50 | 133333 | 175457
7 | 38:59.33 | 10:14.11 | 175458 | 221518
Track 1
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\01 a) Earthbound; b) (Part 2) Future Past.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC BE16CF6A
Copy CRC BE16CF6A
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\02 Moon City.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FF896F6A
Copy CRC FF896F6A
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\03 Miracles Of The Gods.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC AD9C0355
Copy CRC AD9C0355
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\04 The Gold Of The Gods.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4EDD7CDC
Copy CRC 4EDD7CDC
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\05 Toktela.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 052F2D70
Copy CRC 052F2D70
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\06 Chariots Of The Gods.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4B1E7F6F
Copy CRC 4B1E7F6F
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename H:\Sket4er\Absolute Elsewhere – In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976) 2009\07 Return To The Stars.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B249FFFD
Copy CRC B249FFFD
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: dix7pH5mnqUb5D3NxTINUX_qKRE-] disk not present in database
Submit result: dix7pH5mnqUb5D3NxTINUX_qKRE- has been uploaded
==== Log checksum 256CC333E542DBF04529D86B888C6AB2E2CB94DC7187EB9DFF71DB98C8E3C0EF ====
[CUETools log; Date: 30.01.2020 17:51:13; Version: 2.1.4]
[AccurateRip ID: 000d54da-004eb0fa-660b8907] disk not present in database.
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03 100,0 [AD9C0355] [1F6CE561] CRC32
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[AccurateRip ID: 000d54da-004eb0fa-660b8907] disk not present in database.
Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 100,0 [707B9C90] [968D8DC0]
01 100,0 [BE16CF6A] [CE729D6C] CRC32
02 100,0 [FF896F6A] [E1DEEEDE] CRC32
03 100,0 [AD9C0355] [1F6CE561] CRC32
04 100,0 [4EDD7CDC] [D543C698] CRC32
05 100,0 [052F2D70] [E84E8655] CRC32
06 100,0 [4B1E7F6F] [CC8AA4BD] CRC32
07 100,0 [B249FFFD] [34885E15] CRC32
Absolute Elsewhere - In Search Of Ancient Gods (1976)
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