Beautiful and dreamlike. Best played in the evenings with low light. It really transports me away. Each track is quite unique. Some lovely delicate sounds on here. Some of it suddenly becomes quite quirky but very quickly returns to its cosmic dreamlike state. I LOVE it

I agree with ultimathulerecords that Hydrus sounds as being made by some Italian soundtrack/library musicians, and besides Cipriani another possibility is Fabor & Arena (aka Space Craft's Men, who also made the Astral Dimension records). I always felt a similarity in instruments and mood of this record with the Space Craft's Men - Adventures library LP by Arena and Borgazzi. Although that record is from 1983, while Hydrus is from 1978, and even if Space Craft's Men has a more rhythmic and easy mood, I feel some similarities in the instruments and composition style (including some female wordless vocals). In addition, Space Craft's Men record sounds somehow older than 1983, suggesting that it was recorded earlier. I bought this record in 1978, when it was on display on the windows of several Italian record shops, and I was fascinated by it and still like it. It sounds totally different from any other record of the time, including the other disguised PDU record by Elektriktus (aka Andrea Centazzo). Clearly the label or artists tried to disguise Midnight In Space as a record by German musicians, but I am pretty sure this was made by a hidden bunch of some Italian musicians. While the real identity of Elektriktus was revealed years ago by Centazzo himself, Hydrus remains a mystery, and most likely it will remain such forever. As a matter of facts, Hydrus may be even Piero Umiliani or Alessandro Alessandroni with some other musicians (they indeed made several electronic/synth records), but I guess we will never know it. Odd enough, all the cosmic/spacerock records made by PDU were very popular in Italy in the 70s, being released by the same label of the famous Italian singer Mina, and in those years it was quite common seeing on display in the windows of the record shop the PDU LPs by Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers and Tangerine Dream, standing nearby the LPs of million seller singers and easy-pop musicians. Two of the most popular PDU records licensed from Ohr/Pilz/Die Kosmischen Kuriere in the mid 70s were "In der Gärten Pharaos" by Popol Vuh and "Zeit" by Tangerine Dream, maybe because of their stunningly beautiful sleeves. Some records were exclusively made for the Italian market, like the two sampler LPs "Perlenklänge" by Popol Vuh and "Communication" by Ash Ra Tempel, whereas some others had exclusive sleeves totally different from the German ones. PDU had a big role in allowing many young Italians to taste, buy and listen for the first time those very different sounds.

MUST IN CD !

This is very much a mystery record. It was released on PDU around the time of the Elektriktus album. As always suspected (by me) Elektriktus turned out to be Andrea Centazzo. But who was Hydrus? That hasn't been answered yet. Could be a number of different people. It was even rumoured at one time that it was a certain well-known Greek (don't think so myself). The album also covers quite a range, from ambient gloops, drones and esoterica to cheesy soundtrack realms. There's quite a lot of early disco and soul/space-jazz in this record, some typically corny sounds and effects typical of such music from that era. Often I'm reminded as much of some Deodato or Herbie Hancock's lighter work. In light of all that. it really surprises me that Wah Wah Records attempt to promote their reissue as sounding like the Cosmic Jokers, which is way-off the mark. Hydrus could well be another Centazzo related project, but if I was to guess my first choice would be Stelvio Cipriani as it Is often close to some Cipriani soundtrack work of the same era.

MUST IN CD !