Bipolar Explorer – “Memories of the Sky” – [Slugg Records]

Brian Damage   11/30/2024   A Library, CD

It’s a silver lining in dark times like these, but anguish and the examination of one’s self and our path through life tends to extract the finest creative impulses from the artistic community, and both artistic reflection and troubling trends around the world have doubtless informed the American/French trio Bipolar Explorer‘s 12th album, Memories of the Sky (their 5th double album).

Divided into two parts (“The Clouds Darken” and “A Winter Light”), Memories spends its two hours weaving its way through a dreamlike narrative, though it is far from all sweetness and light. It’s a soundtrack to a mighty storm, where the passage of time brings increasing challenges, the pressure threatening to tear us from our very sense of self. Is there a path forward? Do we just let go, and succumb to despair? Are there glimpses of beauty in the midst of destruction? Might there be optimism in the depths of an apocalypse? Can we hold on, and discover light and redemption at the end of all of this?

In the end, we persist, because we need to. Our very existence means the bastards haven’t won. We defy the darkness with our very presence. We find a way.

Memories of the Sky might be our guidebook through this meandering path, as the journey is not always clear. Its chiming ambience brings us to places both desired and unbidden, the trio’s vocals drawing back curtains on visions of delight and disenchantment. It is, quite simply, their crowning achievement, their finest work thus far.

Five Stars. One of my top albums of the year.

– Brian Damage