Live Album Reviews: Cosmograf and Transport Aerian

I have a confession to make: I don’t listen to live albums that much. There are obviously a few exceptions, but I don’t often find much that grabs me on a live album unless there is an angle that is really interesting, such as Schiller’s full orchestra on his Symphonia, or the orchestra and terrific arrangements on Anathema’s Universal, or even Everygrey’s classic A Night to Remember, or Pain of Salvation’s artistic live version of BE. Still, I found that Cosmograf and Transport Aerian recently released great live albums, ones that fans should appreciate. These are shorter reviews, naturally, as I don’t often find much to say about live releases.

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I’ve been listening to Cosmograf since 2013’s A Man Left in Space, and the project hasn’t released a bad album. This live album wasn’t planned, but the soundboard stereo mix ended up sounding pretty good, and so this official bootleg was created. The band gathered in May 2023, being Robin Armstrong on vocals, guitar, and keys; Kyle Fenton on drums and vocals; Lee Abraham on guitars and vocals; and Alastair Martin on bass.

I have two impressions from this release. First, this is a great album in and of itself. The sound is way better than you might expect from a bootleg, and the performances are top notch. I think maybe Robin’s voice was feeling a little strained by the end, but the whole presentation sounds highly professional, personable, and powerful.

Second, I liked the wide variety of tracks chosen from across the discography. I liked hearing something from The Unreasonable Silence and The Man Left in Space, two of his best, and I’ll admit “The Motorway” from The Hay-Man Dreams makes me want to revisit that album, which was one I didn’t fully appreciate when it released.

It’s funny, though, that the track that translated to the live experience the best might have been “British Made” from the most recent album Heroic Materials. I don’t know why, but it sounds even better than the studio version. All in all, this is a really good live release that fans should snap up immediately. I think longtime fans, especially, will appreciate this gift.

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Transport Aerian is another band I’ve been following since 2013. That was for Bleeding, still a good album, but the band has released stronger albums since then, such as 2015’s Darkblue, my favorite 2017’s Therianthrope, and a close second 2021’s Skywound. The band actually released one of my favorite live albums back in 2014, too, which was called Love. Blood. Live. There’s still something about that live release I love.

Live in Ghent was recorded at a private show. The band consists of Hamlet on vocals, guitars, keys, bass, programming, drums, and samples; Stefan Boeykens on guitars; Paul De Smet on drums; and Umut Eldem on keys and orchestrations. The sound of the album is quite good; I like how I can hear the spacious melodies clearly up against the brasher guitars. I’ll be the first to admit that Hamlet’s voice is an acquired taste, but there’s just something I like about how he sings his heart out in various shades and angular tones. The band honestly sounds like no other.

Some of my favorites here are “Shall Not Be”, “Inspire”, “Big Heart”, and the closer “Skywound”. All of them sound great, though I’ll admit that my perfect setlist for Transport Aerian would look very different from this. Still, it is a wonderful release that I think even newcomers might appreciate as a stepping stone into the band’s eccentric discography.