Full-blown five stars
Kiarash Sadigh | Toronto, Ontario Canada | 04/20/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"so here is the story: I was in Buffalo to see Vander Graaf Generator/ Strawbs back in 2009 ...few minutes after I found a seat and settled, I noticed this strange-sounding, industrial-prog playing through the speakers. It grabbed my attention after a few seconds and gradually I could hear it even better through the incredibly loud, beer-induced chatter of the crowd. The music had such a genuinely ominous power and presence that I could not wait anymore and walked my way through the crowd to the p.a. and got this weird name on a piece of paper: Eivind Aarset: "Sonic Codex". It's not easy to confess, considering how much I love Strawbs and VGG, but the best thing that happened to me that night was my finding of this album.
This obviously is not for the Kenny-G /Yanni crowd as it is dark, emotional, industrial, armageddon-like and symphonic. "Sonic Codex" does fit into my definition of a progressive-rock album and it fits there immaculately. Now go and get it!!"