Christmas in July. That’s what I thought when The Speed of Snow first began with a tinkling of Christmasy bells. It didn’t take long for me to dispel that thought, however. Immediately following that fake-out opening, the real meat of this CD began. Solid, talented and cool, accomplished space music.
The name Froese should be very familiar to all space music (electronic music) fans worldwide. Edgar Froese, Jerome’s father, is a founding member of one of the world’s space music supergroups, Tangerine Dream. For that matter, Jerome, himself, is an alumnus of Tangerine Dream, having played with them for several years also, before going solo. The man’s got the pedigree, no doubt.
The Speed of Snow is an EP, three cuts totaling just over 18 minutes. It’s already a classic, however. Regular readers of BlogCritics have probably noticed an occasional series that I write called Philadelphia Space Music. Part of that series is the occasional coverage of a radio show broadcast weekly on xpn, and hosted by Chuck van Zyl. The show, Star’s End, has been playing an occasional cut from this CD.
[I recently discovered another weekly Internet space music show on another Pennsylvania radio station, WDIY-FM, and on the ‘Net. The show’s called Galactic Travels and is hosted by Bill Fox on Thursdays at 11pm. Look for an article on it in the near future.]
Jerome Froese, a quite accomplished musician, is solely responsible for all the instrumentation and electronics on this CD, as well as all of his other solo efforts. I was unable to find The Speed of Snow listed on Amazon; however, it’s readily available from Ricochet Dream, the U.S. distributor. Plus, since The Speed of Snow was initially on the Moon Pop label, an import, their price is much more palatable. And if that’s not incentive enough, this CD is limited to a slim, cool 1,000 copies.
And speaking of Christmas in July, I’ll be doing more reviews of Ricochet Dream’s releases in the near future, since I recently received an early Christmas present from the company – 18 CDs, all different electronic artists – Thanks, Vic!
The Speed of Snow is highly recommended.
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