It could very well be the season of winter or simply my melancholic mood, but lately I’ve had a craving for cold, instrumental electro-pop. The American Dollar’s latest album Atlas seemingly being the catalyst, one-man project Fragments Of Winter (real name Tristan Irvine) has now also joined my current musical rotation of chilly cold pop.

Although it borders on a Jean Michel Jarre-sound a few times, Skyrockets is a very enjoyable album. The songs do indeed sound as if they are made out of winter fragments with its cold, snow-clad soundscape, but also of sparkling colours and fireworks. I think Tristan puts it best himself though:

“The songs are mainly surreal and visual, defined by a melancholic, cold and often despairing sound; at the same time, on top of it, everything is so full of colour, bright lights and loud noises, just like fireworks in a night sky.”

Best tracks: “Astonishing”, “In The Dead Of Night”, “Bitter Colours”, “Sweet Implosions”, “Five Hundred Thousand Feet Below Ice”, “A Flower, Smashed” … basically mostly the first half of the album, not that the other half isn’t good, just not quite as memorable. A track-by-track documentary by Tristan himself can be found here.

~ “Sweet Implosions” ~