MOEWN - Ad Astra (reprise)

Damn, I haven't had so much recent music to dive into and review on my to-do-list for a long time. So let's talk about an album from 2018! (respectively 2019 on vinyl)

"Ad Astra" is the swan song of Moewn (= artistic spelling of "seagulls") and I've actually written a short review of this album a while ago, when the already disbanded group tried to fund a vinyl pressing, but sadly didn't reach the full goal.

Fortunately, when their label Pink Tank Records returned from its own hiatus, the thing finally got made. Admittedly it escaped my mind for a while, but when I ordered the new Camel Driver (review soon!), I finally got this one too. And I must say, I even like it a little bit better than back then.

But in the name of laziness and because I've written that last review in German, I'll just recycle a translated and slightly updated version of it. 

MOEWN - Ad Astra (light blue opaque marbled black vinyl) (2019)

The maritime post rockers Moewn have unfortunately withdrawn to the bottom of the ocean two years ago. As a farewell after the debut "Acqua Alta" and the EP "Aestus" (released as a split with labelmates Camel Driver) they gave us this album.

"Ad Astra" continues the development of the previous works, which means there are still heavy riffs, but overall the music clearly moves away from the rough and brutal to the elegiac and dreamy.

As already seen live a synth player has joined bass, guitar and drums as a full band member. While the electro sounds don't push themselves to the fore in a particularly prominent manner, they do add an extra atmospheric layer to the already established Moewn sound.

As before the band's instrumental songs with seafaring titles (translating to "Keelhauler", "Logbook", "Storm Front", "Morning Mist", "Polar Light" and "Tides") do not reinvent the post rock genre, and you can also complain that the mood of all six tracks is pretty similar. A little more courage to explore and expand the limits of the conceptual framework would certainly not have harmed the album.

So the Hamburger Jungs didn't deliver a monument for the ages. But that shouldn't seriously be the normal expectation for the second full album of an underground band, right?

Nope, "Ad Astra" already is a very successful post rock album and a harmonious conclusion to the Moewn trilogy. Therefore - and not only because the once again great cover artwork by guitar player Ben Warnecke deserved the big print format - I'm definitely happy to own this now.

As usual with Pink Tank releases the pressing and packaging are both of high quality and a relatively low price. The vinyl colour compliments the artwork and on top of that the record comes with a nice little poster.