Hedersleben's third release - The Fall of Chronopolis - is based on the novel of the same name by Barrington Baley. Here's the description of Baley's work from Amazon:
The mighty ships of the Third Time Fleet relentlessly patrolled the Chronotic Empire's thousand-year frontier, blotting out an error of history here or there before swooping back to challenge other time-travelling civilisations far into the future.
Captain Mond Aton had been proud to serve in such a fleet. But now, falsely convicted of cowardice and dereliction of duty, he had been given the cruellest of sentences: to be sent unprotected into time as a lone messenger between the cruising timeships. After such an inconceivable experience in the endless voids there was only one option left to him.
To be allowed to die.
Do I get any of that from listening to the music? Not really. Is that a bad thing? Not at all.
I'd never heard of this band before stumbling across them at Amazon. It was one of the recommendations they offered while I was browsing around. The title intrigued me. The samples sold me. I hadn't read the book either, so I've got that to look forward to as well.
How to describe this piece? Well, it's spacey, it's rhythmic, it's repetitive - it's great. It has all the elements I love best about about Hawkwind (with the exception of Dave Brock). In fact, dare I blaspheme, I enjoy The Fall of Chronopolis better than anything the Hawks have released in the last decade or so. If you like spacerock, you should love this one.
The band - whose names I must learn.I still don't know the band well enough to know their names, but they are a tight unit. And the lady on vocals is exquisite - at a couple of points she put me in mind of Annie Haslam. Check them out here: An Empire on youtube. Musically, it all works around the Chronopolis idea - it has passages that are grand and etheral and clockwork-like. I've got to dive deeper into the lyrics next and read the book - which is available in ebook form.
So there you go. If you like your rock spacey, if you like it sci-fi-y, or if you simply want to try something new, give Hedersleben a look and a listen. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I will definitely be checking out their previous releases and eagerly awaiting the next.
Going to give it five out of five stars.