All credit to Cowley for producing an album that works on many levels: you can buy into the concept – middle-aged man goes on space odyssey to rediscover his humanity – and you can relish the mixed media add-ons (the blog, the illustrated music et al). But best of all he's cut a series of mighty tunes that stir the soul and calm the savaged breast. This is Cowley more confident as a composer, and, even better, liberated as a performer from trying so furiously hard. If Touch and Flee was his ‘concert hall’ recording, intricate and crafted, then Spacebound Apes finds him free and more spontaneous. Of course there's plenty of those massive themes and crashing chords, ‘The City and the Stars’ for example is joyously massive. By contrast, ‘Weightless’ is a spacey (in every sense) improv, while ‘Grace’ has a breathless beauty replete with bird song and a melody to die for. Although French horns and choirs occasionally add colour, the production from Dom Monks is subtle and not over-egged. What is different in this soundworld for Cowley is the use of electronics and synths (there are echoes of John Carpenter's soundtracks, notably Dark Star, on the likes of ‘Echo Nebula’), but again their use is apposite and proportionate. Prepare for lift off: it's time to get lost in space