Archives Volume 1 (158:28) [and the alluded to following two volumes] is a gift to Free System Projekt fans. Here presenting eleven documents of live performances, rehearsals, jam sessions, outtakes, hitherto lost recordings and out-of-print anthology contributions this collection strikes a chord in us we did not know was even there. As with all those attached to the mythology of the Kosmische Musik scene FSP operates at the edge of the world, which affords them a clear view into many others.
An evocation, and sometimes a close re-creation of the classics, their productions are meant to challenge the conventional and confirmed. Once we become adjusted to the minimalist arrangement, stricken timbres, and thrilling contrasts, cognitive processes may become triggered in the mind - where one might ponder the unknowable, unchanging reality behind that which is visible. All the pieces found throughout Archives Volume 1 were realized at a particular time and place, that magical juncture where symbols may become reality, through a process impossible to repeat. Each epic track fosters a deeper, more enduring connection between sender and receiver than could any other more ordinary narrative.
Icy clean cold chords hover in the upper register while silken synth and Mellotron Flute lead lines wend wistfully amidst the throbbing pulse of interlocking, intertwining sequencer patterns. The mechanized motifs, signaling a sense of possibility and potential ascend in a striding motor-motion. The pulse of echoing notes races ahead, settles into a subtle clockwork, lightens, darkens, then dissolves beneath a swirling madness of electronic etherics.
An achievement in mood, style and atmosphere the music of Free System Projekt leaves plenty of space for followers to find their own meaning. Based on a form first introduced over 50 years ago the electronic emanations, having by now been absorbed to some extent into contemporary thought, no longer seem quite as alien or surreal as they did when we first heard them on Rubycon, Ricochet, Irrlicht and Mirage. Yet, the Spacemusic approach in all its many levels and degrees has always been charged with the idea of the future - telling the tale of the succeeding spark which has yet to find its way into our current existence. Luxuriating in the listening, the sonics, the aural state, our day wanes - with the future lying invisibly ahead... waiting to receive us.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 29 May 2025
