This is already the umpteenth release by Ian Holloway, aka Psychic Space Invasion. On the surface, this 41-minute track of epic drones and minimal piano and singing is hardly original. But Holloway does it right: the atmospheres, the development, repetitive chants that do succeed in creating a ‘tribal’ feel, the sound that can be vaguely described as natural but ranks among the most desolate and isolationist I’ve heard in quite some time.

“Transitions” consists of different movements, each clearly distinguished from the others by means of instrumentation, volume, dramatics, urgency and – therefore – atmosphere. The beginning is barely audible and it’s taking some time for the echoing electronics to develop a three-dimensional presence that feels as if they were recorded in a sea cave. Dissonant industrial interventions are lacerating the sonic texture after some ten minutes, further unsettling the listener. A short retarding passage is to follow, only to prepare for my favourite part of the track: that repetitive chant that’s layered upon an uncanny tape loop, becoming ever more insistent and, at times, almost unbearable. From about the 30-minute mark a gentle piano joins in, offering fragments of melancholia while the chants slowly ebb away before they are replaced by a pattern of beats that is way down in the mix and sounds utterly forlorn. More layers, the piano again, and then the layers are breaking away, one after the other until only the piano remains and the track is ending almost as quietly as it has begun. None of this is utterly original, but it is, duh, immensely poetic. And highly recommended. 8/10 -- Jan-Arne Sohns (12 February, 2009)