Electronic music veteran Craig Padilla and electric guitar virtuoso Marvin Allen team up once again for their second collaboration, 'Strange Gravity' on the Spotted Peccary label. It was back in 2019 that I positively reviewed their previous album, 'Toward The Horizon,' and compared it to Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour working with Tangerine Dream. That's not much different than what's happening on this outing, and although the title track takes a long time building to break out of new age embryonic egg, by nearly the fourteen minute mark you will be amply rewarded with soaring guitar and synth drama. There are only five tracks on the album of varying duration (the aforementioned title track being the longest at 18:47) clocking in at 65 minutes for the album. Padilla and Allen work hand-in-glove together as each composition may start off on a sea of calm, but Marvin's fiery guitar playing soon rockets you beyond the stratosphere. Even when he's not ripping off those explosively soaring riffs, Allen's guitar work is sublimely engaging. The combination of the two meshes so well together you'd think these guys had worked in a band together for years.

The music on 'Toward The Horizon' seemed like Padilla and Allen felt they had something to prove with their collaboration, but that's all been done now, and 'Strange Gravity' has a more relaxed sound overall. That doesn't make it any less potent, just different (but not radically different), like a sophomore album should be. There's plenty of power ("Fractured Illuminations" is rife with it) as well as contemplative passages too. The pieces take a while to build, but it turns out that it's well worth the wait to reach the summit. Even when a long time is spent cruising (like the middle of "All Around Us," another 18+ minute track) it's still at a high altitude. I really don't know why more artists aren't collaborating with in the Berlin School electronics/bluesy space guitar vein; there is certainly a market for it. These guys do it so well though that they're setting a standard that will be hard to beat. My only disappointment is that there's not more percussive oomph in places where there could have been. Still, a very good album.