“While we expect a floating ode with morphic shadows, Authentics is busting us in face with its inextricable rhythmic forms”
1 Part I 11:56
2 Part II 8:08
3 Part III 27:32
4 Part IV 6:42
5 Part V 10:20
6 Part VI 8:53
SynGate/Luna | CD-r ANHJ 01 (CD-r 73:31) ****
(Experimental sequenced EM)
A sound journey at the end of the fathomless and an incursion in the spheres of the most abstract of experimental rhythms, “Authentics” is everything but banal. Nesting in the breast of the new ambiospherical and experimental entity of the German label SynGate/Luna, this first collaboration between Wolfgang Barkowski and Hajo Liese (he has already collaborated on the project El-Ka with Till Kooper) offers 6 movements of sequences which explode of anfractuous rhythms in atmospheres divided in the beauty lost of the analog years of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. Rhythms for a label which targets ambient works! That's exactly the very great beauty of “Authentics”; the unexpected, the unpredictable.
Movement of a mass of iridescent sound particles moving in the occult roaring winds from shaman gongs where the voices complain in abandon, "Part I" tickles our ears with a flute lost in some caustic resonances and nomadic drumbeats. A circle of ringing chords binds itself to these pulsations which subtly change the measure of the pace by accelerating it in the trail of the jingles from mnemonic cymbals. Swirling in hollow and melodious winds, these chords fascinate as much as they shape a melody carrying an earworm which changes tone while following the evolution of a rhythm become more insistent even if always slightly chaotic. A rhythm which little by little faints to keeps silent in the intense layers of a synth to the aromas of a black organ which spits its suspicious mists. The rests of a dark melody follow the nuanced voices and the furtive rhythm of "Part II" which borrows the same romance between the rhythm and the glaucous atmospheres, but with a more Teutonic approach. This rhythm skips on a bass line and of its organic implosions and couples with the elytrons of cymbals to follow a more ferocious tangent with the arrival of sequences which hop in a harmonious disorder, drawing a seductive and quiet minimalist approach which is unique to the movements of Berlin School. And "Part II" gets dismember little by little of its harmonies and of its resounding rhythm to finish like a skeleton boned in the blacks ambiences of "Part III" where only pulsatory chords roam in some cold winds. These chords follow a fuzzy rhythmic pattern, which sounds like the previous part, and are grafted into a slow ambiospherical ascent where muffled pulsations and resounding chords dance in a nothingness flavored by vapors of iodine, by mortuary synth layers and gaseous pulsations. And little by little, "Part III" flows into the silence of the disrupted atoms where reign the big winds of space. Even in the peace of mind of the interstellar cold, our senses are constantly under the spell of a cerebral movement of hypnosis which always follows its quest of the auditive magnetism. Quietly the life takes back a shape on "Part III" with these sequences which skip in a puddle of nitrogen, paving the way to a mislaid rhythm which returns to its roots accompanied by a strange organic fauna and synth layers as nasal as ghostly.
And that's the way goes “Authentics”. "Part IV" stages this procession of sequences which forge evolutionary rhythms of which the zigzagged race evolves in an always minimalist pattern where the crystalline mists and the fluty breaths make counterweight to these explosions of thunders which shake a rhythm become more dislocated. "Part V" evolves in the same concept but with a perfume very pronounced for the influences of the era Baumann from the Dream, whereas "Part VI" closes with a more aggressive rhythmic phase. Wrapped by beautiful layers of a synth which reminds the experimental sound forms of Klaus Schulze's Farfisa, the rhythm is furiously freed by a sequencer which makes its keys bounce on-the-spot. Other sequences add to the schizophrenic panorama of a rhythm to the frenzied permutations among which the overlapping and the intertwining are high rhythmic acrobatics which parades in our ears with the heaviness of its movements that layers in tones of old organ are mastering in their unreal habitat environments.
“Authentics” from the duet Alien Nature and Hajo Liese is a very beautiful surprise. While we expect a floating ode with morphic shadows, the music is busting us in face with its inextricable rhythmic forms. Rhythms to ceaseless evolutions with forms as much pluralistic as the fathomless possibilities of sequencers and of their keys smiths of the unlikeliest. From Teutonic minimalism to a mosaic of multi layered rhythms, “Authentics” lays down its wealth in a surrealist atmosphere where an organicosmic fauna and its synth layers to the sulphurized tones invade a bewitchment which grows in every new orientation of the rhythms and in every breath of synth to the fragrances of the analog years. A very beautiful album and a pleasant surprise.
Sylvain Lupari (May 23rd, 2013)
Cette chronique est également disponible en Français sur le site de Guts of Darkness, dont je suis chroniqueur sous le nom de Phaedream: http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/objet.php?objet=16109
“In the shade of the PPG Wave 2.3, TMA delivers in RAL 5002 a strong album as high as our expectations and the bar was quite high after Sequentrips”
1 Arctic Voyage 8:30
2 Clouds 7:28
3 Before Midnight/Luna 8:42
4 Sequentum P 10:09
5 Kristallin 10:43
6 Birth of New Light/Sol 7:30
7 Trip to New Shores 7:02
8 Deja Vu/ Reprise 4:18
SynGate
| CD-r TA04 (CD-r 64:22) ****
(E-prog/rock with a zest of New Berlin School)
After a rain of iridescent breaths, "Arctic Voyage" takes the cradle of its rhythm on puny sequences keys which cavort in a puzzling rhythmic axis. The seraphic synths and the hopping sequences bring us back in the time of Tangerine Dream. Illusion even more pronounced with the discreet riffs of guitar which rock in the shade of synth and sequences fusion. The jingles of cymbals announce the strikings of percussions which plunge the track into an electronic rock. Floundering on its bed of sequenced balls and of their rhythmic schizophrenia, "Arctic Voyage" rages on a heavy rhythm fed by hatched riffs and by philharmonic synth pads before kissing a short ambiospherical phase and re-biting a rhythm decorated this time with melodious keyboard chords and incisive guitar solos that Martin Rohleder peels with a melodious assassin approach. We cannot say that Torsten M. Abel is trapped in his style or his influences. Behind the powerful PPG Wave 2.3, the German synthesist teams up again with the guitarist Martin Rohleder to offer an album which tergiversates constantly between the Berlin School paths of the digital era with an analog sonority. “RAL 5002” is an album created in all the subtleties of the PPG Wave 2.3 which returns some tones as much analog as digital while having several phases of rhythms forged by intense lines of sequences with furious movements. The result is a great and beautiful album that will please undoubtedly to those who love progressive rock and especially the fans of Mind Over Matter, because it's what indefatigably comes to my mind as “RAL 5002” feeds my bewitchment.
"Clouds" offers an approach more moderate than "Arctic Voyage" while keeping the same musical ingredients. It's a kind of ballad which allies marvellously these undisciplined sequences to some more orderly percussions, shaping a two-phase rhythm which limps in the lap of beautiful synth layers in the harmonies of mists of which the dreamlike circles are flowing into our ears as a carousel of innocence. Discreet, the guitar frees its solos which mould a sky of harmonies that we hear sparkling here and there in the background. "Before Midnight/Luna" brings us in a swampy universe where the bass sequences draw up a furtive rhythm which pound in an arthropod fauna with its singings of locusts which live among guitar solos and of its shrill harmonies split in the lunar winds of the synth and of the singings of wolves. A little bit and one would believe to be in Mind Over Matter's universe, especially with the progression of an ambiospherical rhythm which feeds on the scattered rotations of percussions. We are always in a cosmic broth of MOM with the too good "Sequentum P" and its carpet of sequences which pound furiously like some hundreds of balls rolling to lose brightness on a wonky conveyor. The chords of a solitary guitar are strolling with the breaths of a dreamy synth while that the rhythm is fading out to be reborn again under a more undulatory shape with buzzing sequences which crisscross in a heavy rhythmic vaulting, bringing "Sequentum P" towards a more rock approach with good percussions and a guitar which bastes its twisted solos among notes of an acoustic guitar that one pinches with a Hispanic dexterity. The rhythm becomes as much furious as heavy with these fat sequences which gurgle of an organic aura on the shadows of some strong percussions and the ethereal mists of a synth which place more of its harmonies than of its solos.
"Kristallin" caresses our ears with a gleaming line of sequences which makes waltz its keys in a kind of ritornello mi diabolico-virginals. Clanic percussions brush the innocent electronic riddle that a synth and its seraphic voices is covering of its prismic charms. A bass line with resounding chords dances out of time on Tablas percussions while that the rhythm takes root in its morphic sands dance that a synth adorns of an angel dusts. After the swamps of "Before Midnight/Luna", "Birth of New Light/Sol" brings us near some restful oasis where birds are chirping and synth waves are floating and of which the combined harmonies is flowing in the shade of monasteries bell towers. A synth line, and its singings as jerked as a break-dance rhythm, extricates itself out of this rural serenity, introducing a curt rhythm where some fluty breaths are kissing the solos of a guitar a bit jazzy. Heavy and powerful, "Trip to New Shores" turns our ears upside down with a structure of strong e-rock which denies any shape of meditative poetry. It's powerful and heavy, with a meshing of hard electronic percussions and oscillations of sequences which structure a furious rhythmic ride and keep up a beautiful melodious approach à la Tangerine Dream eras of Johannes Schmoelling to Jerome Froese but wouldn't be Loom? "Deja Vu/Reprise" spreads its air of déjà vu with a more electronic approach than on Sequentrips. Omnipresent, the guitar of Martinson splashes a nostalgia with plaintive solos which cry on the resonances of chords closer to a metallic harpsichord that of a melancholic piano.
Even with its title of space laboratory, “RAL 5002” is an album very earth to earth. It's a powerful album, gnawed on by rhythms and atmospheres, very short I have to say, as much intense as the spirit of musical adventure and of exploration which are within the reach of an instrument so much versatile as the PPG Wave 2.3. Torsten Abel resuscitates a genre that Klaus Hoffmann Hoock had buried with the deceased Mind Over Matter; either some e-rock fills by surrealist atmospheres which live marvellously with blazing rhythms. But what matters most is that TMA delivers an album as high as our expectations. And the bar was high after Sequentrips.
Sylvain Lupari (May 22nd, 2013)
Cette chronique est également disponible en Français sur le site de Guts of Darkness, dont je suis chroniqueur sous le nom de Phaedream: http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/objet.php?objet=16108
“I like these ambient rhythms which pound in an organic life and which whispers us to the ear all what escapes our perceptivity and Aftermath 2.0 is full of it”
Aftermath # 01 7:49
Aftermath # 02 6:31
Aftermath # 03 7:51
Aftermath # 04 3:16
Aftermath # 05 5:30
Aftermath # 06 6:01
Aftermath # 07 4:03
Aftermath # 08 9:09
Ultimae
Records | inre 10.2 (DDL 50:10) ****
(Psybient and organic down tempos)
Initially released in 2003, Aftermath gets a sound lifting in this new remastered version available only on the Ultimae Records download platform. “Aftermath 2.0 - Archives of Peace” is an album to the slow evolution with its ambiences divided between the astral and spectral cosmic which undulate, sing and make noise through delicate broken rhythms. Vincent Villuis has reworked the whole album besides adding a new track, Aftermath # 08 for the greater pleasure of the ears which had ignored the first version. This story of psybient on background of down-tempos also stages a good friend of me Paul Takahashi who feeds by images the 8 stages of “Aftermath 2.0 - Archives of Peace” with a series of photos of microscopic elements which fill a universe in perpetual movement, quite as this last work of Aes Dana.
"Aftermath # 01" is waking up to the ambient life with some chirping of astral birds which dialogue with the celestial rumblings and layers of synths tinged by angelic voices and fluty breezes. Sometimes glaucous and sometimes dreamlike, "Aftermath # 01" floats between its clouds of buzzing toxicity, its seraphic breezes and its flutes to the azure breaths, roaming for a portion of rhythm which pounds shyly in its last rolled moaning noises. "Aftermath # 02" follows the same tangent before embracing a good down-tempo which feeds on its echo. The rhythm is structured on a meshing of organic pulsations which reminds me a little of Jarre's and some percussions of which the strikings reverberate in a shape of rhythmic echo. A pattern of melodic loops gets twist up all around the rhythm that the soft seraphic voice of Pascale Auffret caresses of warm ethereal breaths. The gliding rhythm of "Aftermath # 03" is articulated around jerked hits of percussions and pulsations. It's a curt rhythm which swells with a sober bass line and which is decorated of delicate shimmered and singing arpeggios which wave against the measure of the pace. The 2nd part offers a structure of more aggressive rhythm which pounds with its bass pulsations skipping in their circles of rhythm, swirling on the spot as we do when we want to imitate the ground flight of the palmipeds in rhythmic areas of turbulence. It's a very good passage on “Aftermath 2.0 - Archives of Peace” which falls in the cosmic limbos of the brief but effective "Aftermath # 04" and whom the organic pulsations overflow into "Aftermath # 05" and of its musical look which reminds to me of Juno Reactor.
The pattern of puffed melody in the circles of glass comes back to haunt a surprising meshing of percussions which flicker, flash and resound such as elytrons of metal of which the varied forms spit tones as hollow as lively in the shadows of the sequenced pulsations which hammer into a vertical rhythm. Voices of temporary insanities are spinning and are sighing; Aftermath throughout this powerful track to the scents of psy-trance. "Aftermath # 06" is a long ambient passage knocked off by black and hollow winds while that "Aftermath # 07" surfs on the waves which bind both tracks to extricate itself from its noisy intro where incongruous knockings reverberate into the voices which are just as much, while quietly an overexcited piano embalms "Aftermath # 07" of a superb approach of dark musing. Fans of Picture Palace Music will adore this passage. "Aftermath # 08" is the new track on this sound alteration work that is “Aftermath 2.0 - Archives of Peace” and it's a damn good one. If the intro is of organic ambiance with chords of piano converging, the one on the other one, in a sound confusion deserving of an epileptic crack, the rhythm begins to buzz just before the 3rd minute with percussions to the metallic breezes which spit their poisons sizzling on the jerky movements of an up-tempo. Minimalist, the track is storing up its ambiances of white noises and static implosions, its slamming and sparkling percussions, its line of humming bass as well as its melody strummed in a recurring pattern which stops running in loops as soon as the tempo becomes more pulsatory and as soon as it flickers of its silvered cymbals in the caresses of some ethereal voices. Indeed, a great track!
Peace will never have been so troubling as on “Aftermath 2.0 - Archives of Peace”. The psybient tale of Aes Dana inhales the strangeness of these nonconformist musical works which seduce due to their capacities to put in symbiosis all these parallel universes which abound within the reach of ears and of eyes but which we not do not hear nor see. I like these ambient rhythms which pound in an organic life and which whispers us to the ear all what escapes our perceptivity. And it's exactly the very great beauty and the story behind “Aftermath 2.0 - Archives of Peace” from Aes Dana.
Sylvain Lupari (May 20th, 2013)
Cette chronique est également disponible en Français sur le site de Guts of Darkness, dont je suis chroniqueur sous le nom de Phaedream: http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/objet.php?objet=16101
“Impulses is a musical rendezvous filled with an eclecticism of the genres and where the jazz thrones on structures sometimes honeyed and sometimes strangely aggressive”
1 Wild Mushroom 3:44
2 Gridlock 5:09
3 In the Soup 5:18
4 For Ranga 2:11
5 The Lone Beacon 6:46
6 Mustang Sally (Mark Rice) 6:23
7 Shifting Gears 2:47
8 Le Goggier 4:24
9 The Seed 4:35
10 Amadinda Groove 2:30
11 Naima (John Coltrane) 5:12
12 Not Under My Watch 7:58
Blow Hard Music 101 (CD 56:55) ***½ (E-Jazz)
Talking about electronic jazz? Why not! I do believe that's necessary to open our portal of perceptions to all kinds...well, more or less. And I have to tell you guys that I didn't dislike. “Impulses” is Bill Anschell's 5th album. The man is jazz pianist who rolls his bump since the beginning of the 80's. His last album is a musical rendezvous filled with an eclecticism of the genres and where the jazz thrones on structures sometimes honeyed and sometimes strangely aggressive. The 12 structures find their strength in a skillful meshing of pulsations and percussions with compulsive beatings and rolling, pulsations and organic riffs which outdistance the work from a simple album of jazz which however preserve its acid tints. Here's a review about an album of electronic jazz by someone who knows nothing about jazz but loves EM.
And it is softly that Bill Anschell tries to cajole the listeners to his style which rocks them by diversities. Leaned on notes of a pensive piano which roll in a minimalist melodic pattern, "Wild Mushroom" is a nice e-ballad. A kind of lunar down-tempo where some penetrating synth blows in the tones of melancholic jazz sing on a meshing of sedentary pulsations/percussions and on smooth chords of glass which are ringing for a secondary melody. "Gridlock" is very near the phases of Herbie Hancock's androids dance with a broken rhythm which hangs on to some percussions rolling. The musical envelope is as well rich as puzzling with a crowd of tones, as organic than electronic, where the debauchery of sounds brings us to another level. Lost chords roam in this mishmash of typist’s kind of percussions, floating as white shadows on a structure which is so closer of some jazzy psychedelic break-dance. I like it because that's very particular and that reminds me the years of madnesses of Bill Nelson on Red Noise, without the voices of course. "In the Soup" is a nice track all in contrast with its percussions which run wild such as some xylophone keys on acid, breaking the delicate morphic approach of a contemplative melody which auscultates our ears with lamentations eaten away by regret. I don't know jazz enough to peel the genres but let's say that "For Ranga" is more of an acid kind with a sound whirlwind as lively as melodious. "The Lone Beacon" is a superb track with a long mesmerizing structure which undulates like sea waves enlightened by a burning sunset. The percussions borrow some Caribbean airs while the synth waves, like everywhere likewise on “Impulses”, are dragging their melancholies like some breaths lost in the stratosphere. It's very beautiful.
"Mustang Sally", from Mark Rice, is a very aggressive, untidy track where the rhythm is rough draft and sat on a meshing of pulsations/percussions and organic lamentations. A rhythm articulated by brief jerks and kicks of percussions while the big pads of organs bicker with some floating and rather incisive solos of guitars, feeding an atmosphere of the most eclectic where the ambient moods, the prog rock and the jazz-rock live with a stunning symbiosis. After the innocent ritornello that is "Shifting Gears", which possesses quite a whole pattern of rhythm in the tribal tendencies, like on "For Ranga", "Le Goggier" borrows a texture of old jazz for carnivals with a structure of organic rhythm as strange as a music of fair where the acrobats roam through carousels and do tricks of cheap magic. "The Seed"? Hum...I have a little of difficulty with these turbulent rhythms which swirl in structures of acid-jazz, stopping to embrace an ethereal passage, or a wandering melody, to restart immediately of its stormy kicks. And nevertheless, there are beautiful fragments of melodies which cry in this envelope broken by its rhythm so much rebel than unpredictable. "Amadinda Groove" is a beautiful melody. It's a slow dance with fragrances of lounge where chords of e-piano adopt the rotation of percussions and the jingling which waddle among some galactic streaks, giving the track a lunar nuance. I like the version of John Coltrane's "Naima". The track evolves inside a harmonious envelope which is finely torn between its soft rhythm and its evanescent ballad. One could tell to listen to some very nice lunar jazz. "Not Under My Watch" is a track which is in the same vein as "Mustang Sally". The track offers a curt and edgy rhythm which explodes of the strikings from some unbridled percussions which blast such as fireworks exploding in a too high sky and which quiets down with some fragments of mislaid melodies. At both explosive and serene, it depicts marvellously the universe all in contradiction of the acid and progressive electronic jazz from “Impulses” which lost many of its electronic spirit in the 2nd part. I like it well. It's quite new to me and I would say that I will consume it in small doses, which is segment by segment with the 1st one for starter.
Sylvain Lupari (May 19th, 2013)
Cette chronique est également disponible en Français sur le site de Guts of Darkness, dont je suis chroniqueur sous le nom de Phaedream: http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/objet.php?objet=16100
“The presence of Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock brings to Analog Overdose 3 a rebel and untidy side which completes marvellously the electronic fluidity of Thomas Fanger and Mario Schönwälder”
1 Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part I 21:04
2 Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part II 14:04
3 Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part III 17:52
4 Bar Liquid (Encore) 19:57
Manikin Records MRCD 7067
SynGate|CD-RMR67
/ 2012 (CD-r 73:04) ****
(Progressive Berlin School with a zest of groove/lounge)
Recorded live at the Satzvey Castle in 2003, this 3rd episode of the Analog Overdose series is an unaccustomed musical rendezvous. “Analog Overdose 3” is a fusion between the hypnotic and groovy rhythms of Fanger & Schönwälder and the psychedelico progressive structures of Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock. The album being out of print, SynGate took the helm by making it available in a cd-r format with a musical perfection proper to the German label which so invites you to a delicious mix with a stunning outcome.
A wave from a cinematographic synth spreads its philharmonic strata and its clouds of blue mists to guide "Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part I" towards a puny rhythm, articulated by riffs of sequences which sound like some soft wood or like knocks on downy anvils. It's a whole world of sequences which dance in our ears. Sequences in the varied tones of which the curt and jerked hits shape a dislocated rhythmic which dances within the cracklings of synths. Hypnotic and mesmerizing, the intro is melted with a muddled rhythm pierced of streaks and flew over by twisted solos. Not really atonal, nor really very rhythmical, "Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part I" takes more vigour with percussions which roll in an android walking among a thick cloud of jumping keys rolling as balls in an abacus and a carpet of balls on a conveyor, creating an effect of unique rhythmic echo to the movements of sequences from Fanger & Schönwälder. Even if the universe of the duet cogitates around these sequences, synths are not outdone as prove it these very beautiful solos, to tones of guitars, which cover the second phase of this spasmodic rhythm. "Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part II" adopts a pattern of funky jazz with crackling chords a bit organic which mould a rhythmic dialect of aliens in a background filled of some fragrances of the retro disco years. These chords to hybrid tones skip and cavort on this floating structure which finds its balance on some silky enveloping pads. The track exploits completely its 14 minutes to borrow a more avant-gardist phase, dissociating itself from this pattern of slow ambient dance tempo which, by moments, overturns into a lounge genre.
An air of carnival introduces "Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part III" with a structure of circular rhythm which spins without finding its nest. Swirling such as rhythmic lassoes, the movement is fluid and dribbled by jumpy sequences. A beautiful Mellotron layer and a mix of synth/guitar glance over this overture that we feel and that we guess frenzied. The percussions light a rhythm with a look of a free-jazz which struggles in a cacophony chewed on by riffs of guitars and sequences, inviting the electronic six-strings of Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock spat its acute streaks and its solos on the loops. The tempo works hard in this kind of fusion from the styles of Mind Over Matter, Manuel Göttsching (E2-E4) and Fanger & Schönwälder. And gradually the intensity gets out of breath and "Hall of the Bourbon Lillies Part III" embraces a more ambiospheric phase where the lamentations of the e-guitar are melting with tenderness on floating and suspended pads of a morphic synth. "Bar Liquid (Encore)" is dynamite. It's the perfect fusion between Fanger & Schönwälder and Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock. The rhythm is fine and hatched by riffs of sequences which hiccup in the delicate frenzy of the bongo style percussions. The harmonious envelope is weaved in layers of a synth with paradisiacal breaths and the lamentations of a guitar that the leader of Mind Over Matter tortures with passion. The communion between both approaches is great while the track becomes more and more intense with a clearly more aggressive guitar which fights against the invasion of synths and their seraphic languages.
With “Analog Overdose 3”, the Berlin duet continues to amaze and to seduce by leaving an enormous place to the creativity of their guest. The presence of Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock brings a rebel and untidy side, unique to Mind Over Matter, which completes marvellously the electronic fluidity of Thomas Fanger and Mario Schönwälder, whose Analog Overdose series continues quietly its evolution outside the limits of pure Berlin School. Here are two artists who are not afraid of going where others refuse even to think of it.
Sylvain Lupari (April 2007 and translated for Synth&Sequences on May 15th, 2013)
Cet article est disponible en Français sur le site de Guts of Darkness, dont je suis chroniqueur sous le nom de Phaedream: http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/objet.php?objet=9697
