Edward Ka-Spel

CD version. High On Station Yellow Moon is a concept album by Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots, released by Soleilmoon in May 2017. Two long suites tell a satirical science fiction story set on a space station. The record also began his collaboration with Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls, a long-time friend.

Ka-Spel is credited with voice and instruments throughout. Palmer sings in sections of both suites, plays keyboards in a section of the second and piano on The Leary Cloud (Slight Return). Raymond Steeg and Peter Van Vliet mastered the album, and Daria Musienko made the cover art. Ka-Spel's own notes set the scene at a station where the train never arrives and the waiting room is always occupied.

Part One runs 19:40 and Part Two 17:24, each built from connected sections, songs and spoken passages. After an opening ballad, Ka-Spel tells of a Russian, a Chinese and an American billionaire who move to a space station called OMG666. They live there peacefully until a solar flare knocks out every electronic device on the planet below. The arrangements mix real strings, bells and harp with warm synthesizer pads, processed micro beats and electronic loops that set the pace. The CD adds two pieces that are not on the vinyl. The Leary Cloud (Slight Return) turns one section of the suite into a piano ballad. No-one To Hear You Squeak is a seven-minute ambient piece built on the sound of a rain stick.

Musique Machine rated the album four out of five in January 2018. Its reviewer heard Palmer's playing as “informed by modern indie, post and art rock”. He concluded that the record has “a cerebral depth and oddness which make it a special sort of strange gem”. The same review linked the collage-like suite form to the band's obscure side releases and early cassettes, where one track holds many short, contrasting parts.

This CD edition was released by Soleilmoon Recordings (catalogue SOL 194 CD) in 2017, limited to 999 copies in a gatefold digisleeve. It holds the two suites plus the two bonus tracks missing from the LP.