Craig Padilla & Marvin Allen – Weathering the Storm

Weathering the Storm is an homage to pre-1975 “Kosmiche Music”, the third collaboration between electronic ambient veteran Craig Padilla and guitar virtuoso Marvin Allen on Spotted Peccary Music (SPM). Like their previous two releases, Toward the Horizon and Strange Gravity, this latest project – the third in a trilogy – sees Padilla and Allen build on their unique styles to create a dreamlike, dramatic electronic landscape that only they could create together. Fans of Tangerine Dream, Yes and Klaus Schulze will find plenty of new sounds to love on this new release.

Weatheringthe Storm is a hypnotic fusion of early ’70s krautrock and modern electronic ambient production; Padilla and Allen have once again blended guitar and synthesizer, old and new, into a captivating sonic odyssey. Using very little studio trickery, the duo went “old school” on the first few songs. For the epic 18+ minute first track, “The Prodigal Sun,” Allen played rhythm guitar in the style of the opening track of Edgar Froese’s “Macula Transfer” album to complement the main sequence, and overdubbed lead guitar. Padilla used an organ sound and his analog modular synth, as well as some classic effects, much like the musicians of that era would have used. On “Aquatic,” Padilla and Allen incorporate found sounds—wind and thunder from a growing tornado, trucks roaring down a wet road, rainfall—into a Tangerine Dream-inspired texture of reversed piano and organ. The track was meant to be a tribute to Edgar Froese’s 1974 title track to the album Aqua. “There’s an energy on this track,” exclaims Padilla. “Marvin and I both got a rare text from the EBS (Emergency Broadcasting System) for a tornado warning, and were mesmerized by the funnel cloud forming; we got lost in the beauty of it before realizing what was the smart thing to do…take cover. Luckily, Marvin had the wherewithal to take his recording equipment out and capture the weather sounds that you hear on this track.”

The album is not only a trilogy in sonic stylings, but also in visual storytelling; all three of Padilla and Allen’s SPM collaborations feature the iconic Umbrella Girl on the cover. Theories abound, but one might say she represents all of uslooking for our own way of existence amidst the chaos of the world. She is an open-minded seeker, and these soundscapes are her explorations. The album premiered on Star’s End Radiohosted by Chuck van Zyl, who also reviewed the album, noting, “With eachpassing piece we become exposed to different intensities of mood and variations in tone. From bright motion-filled sonic landscapes and blissed-out plush textures, to overcast hollows of twilight realms, Padilla and Allen guide us safely through their well-crafted thought zones. Moving between the soothing, the unsettling, and the fiery, Weathering the Stormcoaxes raindrops of melodic narrative from storm clouds of harmonic drama –playing out as a thousand beautiful dreams burn softly within.

Release date: February 17^th, 2023.