Kosmo Sound - Kosmo Sound EP (Zephyrus Records)

At the core of the project are bassist Matthias Geernaert and drummer Marius Couvreur, supplemented with keyboardist Bos Debusscher (see also Pura Vida), guitarists Edmund Lauret and Cyriel Vandenabeele, saxophonist Ambroos De Schepper and sound man and producer Peter Desmedt. The band has only been active since the fall of 2016, but already presents a 5 track self-titled debut EP, recorded at Studio Ledeberg run by the aforementioned Peter Desmedt.

Opener 'De Viskeuze Cirkel' sounds somewhat like an instrumental from a nineteen eighties ska band, 'Pannage' we'd like to describe as jazzy dub, and the same goes for 'Way Up High', but really drawing our attention were the seagulls sounds in the eight-minute plus 'Gelukkig Maar', sound wise somewhat reminiscent of the Tuareg-blues of bands like Tinariwen, Tamikrest or Bombino. And if, like yours truly, you're wondering to which Eli closing track 'Tribute To Eli' (also our favorite from the track list) is referring, well, Eli appears to be the name of a Ghent based band Kosmo Sound guitarist Cyriel Vandenabeele was a member of. Nice Belgian discovery, with a special mention for Ambroos De Schepper whose sax playing provided the songs with the necessary depth and warmth.