Just in time for the holidays, Blue Sky Alive’s third album is about to be released. Outside of the Milky Way, the first two albums remained unheard by Earthlings but became immediate blockbusters.
“This is the best thing that I have heard with my 24 ears” — Ark Ra Gulab, Tau Ceti e.
While Piercing the Beautiful Blue Halo will be launched on Earth on December 21, 2021, the estimated release nearest-galaxy dates will be 2.5 million years later owing to the physical constraint of the speed of light. Meanwhile, Earthlings will get first access to the record before their Andromedean counterparts. Piercing the Beautiful Halo is an eight-song concept CD about a space explorer from the Triagulum galaxy visiting Earth. It’s an album in the conventional sense: each song contributes to the whole, and it was developed and is intended to be listened to as a complete.
Although the music is electronic, the style is out of the usual. Blue Sky Alive’s musical inspirations range from Vangelis’ lovely synth melodies and the spacey movements of classic Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, and Hans Zimmer, to Boards of Canada’s hypnotic beats, Techno and DubStep, and Jon Hopkins’ and Max Cooper’s refinement.
This may be described as an electronic Space Odyssey, and take the composer’s word for it: “it is not corny!” Blue Sky Alive is essentially one man who has spent his non-music life giving his body as a bullet shield for important people, tracking down actual cyberpunks, and locating spies, but who really just wants to make music for geeks to love. He finds Earth listeners the most difficult to persuade, but feels there must be a segment of music fans who would be willing to devote an hour to listening to and enjoying Piercing the Beautiful Blue Halo.
