Witness the Destruction of a Star
Karl Rydby returns with the third release by Planet Supreme on Cryo Chamber, Destruction of a Star. The title is a mirroring of the Planet Supreme debut, 2021’s Creation of a Star. Each Planet Supreme album is a unique offering of soundscape style that only Karl Rydby displays with such deft execution, while also standing apart from each other in style and presentation, illustrating his unique ambient style of analog walls of sound, as well as interspersed uses of stringed instruments in varied styles, sometimes slow and saturated with synthetic processing, and sometimes merely a simple acoustic guitar plucking or strumming a small rhythm.
Destruction of a Star seems a more artistic, maybe even intimate departure from previous PS releases, and this is not a detriment, but merely this author’s way of trying to find a proper way to describe the overall timbre of the release. Whereas the previous album, Rule from the Dark Mountain had a feel almost like a 70s space opera, this newest release feels more intimate, almost like a private jam session between an artist and his enraptured audience… on the deck of an interstellar ship overlooking the vastness of space, with colossal star slowly gathering to go nova.
The album opens with field recordings and slow, evolving analog pads, each deftly weaving beside and between and resolving in their own time. Each track in this is album flows seamlessly with its neighbors, while also standing apart from each other with their own unique qualities and timbre - some marching forward with retro-sounding synth stabs, such as in the song, Transcendental, or the more light-hearted woodwind sounds of Carved Maps. I mentioned the transitions between the evolving pads are delicate, and never washed with excessive reverb; rather, each element is handled with a deft craftsmanship, and the subtle and delicate mix gives each song an intimate feel.
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