Email the reviewerRosetta, "The Galilean Satellites"
"These songs are about a space man."
With this theme explained to the listener in small print on the inside of the album, we press play and are cast into the enveloping darkness like an astronaut whose severed lifeline has condemned him to an eternal spacewalk. "The Galilean Satellites" is a double album comprised of monolithic dirges and desparate ambience. Not for the faint of heart. But not without a strange sense of beauty either.
Disc 1 might be the soundtrack to a doomed venture into space. "Departe" begins things with a lazy wash of clean guitar and keyboard. Sure enough, the build comes in and we're made aware that this isn't going to be a good trip. Armine's vocals lean over the crushing music and repeatedly enact a fall from grace. The next track continues in the same framework, further instilling feelings of helplessness. "Absent" sees dementia settling in with the space noodling of the guitars midway through the song. And "Itenerant" and "Au Pays Natal" toy with the psyche with half an hour of isolating madness.
Disc 2 could be the soundtrack to what our space man's corpse sees as it floats further into the nethers of the universe. Each ambient track bleeds into the next, creating a sculpture of sound designed to induce agoraphobia. It's big and reverberating and can make you feel creepily lost within yourself. It's a nice effect, but definitely something you have to be in the mood for. It's interesting, I'm not usually receptive to ambient music, but I almost prefer this disc to the first. It's testament to Rosetta's gift for crafting an aural adventure.
If I could describe "The Galilean Satellites" in one word it would be "reverb." This could be taken literally, as in the production which hinges on this effect, or in a more visceral sense, as a full listen will most likely leave you physically numb.
This album requires a certain amount of determination on the listener's part. Rosetta haven't made things easy with the shortest tracks clocking in at over eight minutes. "The Galilean Satellites" is a task you have to set about. It's not for a casual listen while you drive to pick up groceries. It's for the long hauls. Or for your headphones if you really want to drift from reality.
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