ZeroNull - Blue Mars

The third and final installment of the Mars-themed sci-fi trilogy! The first one was the Red Mars, the second was the Green Mars... and yes... this one is the Blue Mars. We reviewed Red Mars in 2023, and that one even ended up on the list of best-of-2023. Again, its out as a limited cassette-release on Marbre Negre. 

The design of the artwork follows the blue theme offcourse. Nice touch that the tape is a transparent blue one. Love the mystical kind of coloring, various kinds of blue... and that cool kind of deep-space sci-fi font really gives the release a futuristic feel to it. The album contains 2 tracks, each track for each side of the tape. Bout 39 minutes in total. 

The first track is called The Accelerando-Deep Space Exploration. There is... the sound of... something metallic like a huge church bell in space, creating this huge and engulfing sound... giving the listener the impression of how BIG space really is. Something or someone bangs on something, something with a lot of echo and reverb. Everything is levitating in free air at the moment! Another sound comes in, a bit like a huge geyser really... and the tiny tabbing of crystals in some deep cavern. In comes a lovely futuristic, melodic retro-synth ambient drone, wrapping it all up in a completely focused vision. It´s soo beautiful, I mean... damn... Klaus Schulze would have been proud! I mean, I'm not even halfway through the first track! Stuff is very moody with light touches of dark elements here and there, but there is a lovely sense of hope here. I do know that I often mention Frank Herbert´s Dune stuff in my reviews. And here I go again. Just listen and you´ll get it! The ending of this track is also... breathtaking! 

The second track on the B-side is called Phoenix Lake. Sound of rain inside a huge... open garage. U know... the kind of garage where all the machinery of the farm is inside. Then there is a strange electronic hum, of something vibrating... something alive. And that hum keeps on building, and getting more and more dynamic in the way it builds up. Not overwhelming, more in a subtle way. Additional layers of electronic drones of sound are being mixed into this otherworldly hum. There is also a banging hammering sound, coming from... some distant room. Everything tunes out, and the listener is being led into another strange room. Eerie sounds merge into one another, and some chittering and watery insect-like sounds are there as well. Is it the Martians? Who knows?... 

The big question here is... is there life on Mars?. I don´t know (really), but I do know that there is life in the trilogy that ZeroNull has managed to create! Not just life, but something that keeps on... doing its thing. The whole trilogy works as an independent and living, breathing entity of sound. Waiting for anyone to stumble upon its inspiring path. I really do wish, that this trilogy would be released as some kind of box set... with something like a small book or something. I hope that this project will continue to describe the great cosmos out there, Venus next time?  

Bandcamp (label): https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/blue-mars