Gayle Ellett & The Electromags – The Painted River of Light (PeacockSunrise Records, 2025)
With The Painted River of Light, their third release, Gayle Ellett & The Electromags once again dive into the deep waters of instrumental progressive rock. This is a passageway into a hallucinatory landscape where sound bends like refracted light on a river’s surface. Over the course of four expansive tracks, Ellett orchestrates a hypnotic mix of Mellotron dreamscapes, Minimoog solos, Hammond organ swells, and shimmering Rhodes piano, crafting a musical current that carries the listener downstream into the unknown.
“It’s meant to sound both familiar and exotic,” Ellett explains, “like you’re seeing colors in the water that you’ve never seen before.” And that’s exactly what this album attempts; an auditory trip akin to floating through an uncharted canyon, where every ripple in the water pulses with psychedelic energy. It’s 48 minutes designed to mimic the altered perception of someone high on mushrooms without ever needing a substance to get there.
Ellett’s command of symphonic and flute-like Mellotron sounds is undeniably one of the album’s greatest strength, soaring above his intricate guitar and sitar-guitar work. In these structured compositions, Painted River thrives, evoking the grandeur of classic symphonic prog and progressive psychedelia while maintaining a contemporary edge. However, when the music veers into extended, jazzy, freeform sections, it begins to drift, feeling aimless.
“As a kid, my favorite ride at Disneyland was always the Jungle Cruise,” shares Ellett. “It was all encompassing, huge and three-dimensional, a total environment of the Imagineers’ own making. With The Painted River of Light, I wanted to recreate that same sort of visual immersion, but through sound. And I hope we’ve succeeded!”
Musicians: Gayle Ellett on Mellotron, Minimoog, Hammond, Rhodes, Solina, 6 & 12 string guitars, sitar guitar, bouzouki, soundscapes & effects; Mark Cook on bass, 14-string Warr guitar & soundscapes; and Craig Kahn on drums.
Track List for the album The Painted River of Light:
1) The Illuminating Sands of Time 12:28
2) Deep Waters Glow Brightly 10:39
3) Frequency Modulation 14:30
4) The Rhodes to Discovery 10:31
Total time 48:15
Ice, color and light album cover images by Steven Leak, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.