“One has to listen to Ethereal with the ears of the heart, so that it could clean our soul of old tears which always refuse to fall”
1 The Beginning of Chronos 8:12
2 Ethereal 8:22
3 Hemera's Revelation 7:45
4 Distant Resonance 7:05
5 Flash of Desires 13:03
6 Seductive Dreams 4:31
7 Adagio for Muses 5:40
Acheloo Music (DDL 54:40)
(Tribal Ambient Music)
Acheloo! I had already crossed this name to have review one of his albums, Dream, in autumn 2013. I had found the music pretty decent and good for an album of esoteric music strongly soaked by a New Age. In fact, ETHEREAL is a first album since Dream. This is more than 4 years of silence! And it's also a beautiful album which throws me back in the very lyrical moods of Bayou Moon, for its dark and folk side, an album from Tom Newman which was a kind of springboard towards the paths of a more progressive New Age in the 80's.
The Beginning of Chronos starts Acheloo's last opus with a fascinating ode of Amerindian spirituality. The rhythm is morphic and delicately pulsing. Layers of gray mist, and others more in mode decor for ambient music, as well as notes from a romantic guitar decorate a first phase which is forged in the dream. Knockings and felted explosions add a bit of intensity, whilst the guitar eventually puts down some nice little solos as melodious as ethereal. Jingles of cymbals, a shadow of bass and an amnesic choir also accompany this spiritual procession which ends with a higher degree of percussions and explosives effects, adding some more intensity to this first title of ETHEREAL. The title-track follows with a Carlo Luzi's clearly more pensive and more melancholic vision. His guitar stretches its chords of an obvious sadness. A nice movement of sequences gets in and spreads its tinkled chords which turn as a carousel lost in the mist. Finally, a bass line adds a touch a little more in the kind of sober Jazz for an evening of tears, driving Ethereal towards one finale quite smoothly. And the more we move forward, and the more we open our eyebaths, and the more we discover a beautiful album built around a fragile intensity. Hemera's Revelation is another title with a flavor so tribal ambient as in The Beginning of Chronos. On the other hand, the rhythmic support is more present and more accentuated with good reverberating sequences and good strikes of percussions scattered, but in mode tribal rock. The guitar is very beautiful and throws fragrances of mysticism which would go with delight into Robert Rich's universe. A reference point to situated a little bit better this album.
Distant Resonance begins with lapping of a water darkened by the reflections of clouds. Breaths of silent voices take care of the mysterious side of the introduction, whereas the guitar roams with pensive solos. An iridescent wave falls over these ambiences, bringing an electronic life which expresses itself by sibylline layers. These layers are floating like a backwash and finally like a light whirlwind of waves on a rhythm which wins in intensity but which always stays as a dance for two dead lovers. Let's imagine a goddess who dances with winds and with rays from a sun of spring and we have the elements of Flash of Desires. The movement is slow and the sound décor is very well detailed with effects which dance with elegance between the tears of a more incisive guitar, as well as the nostalgic notes of an evasive piano and a nice flute as so charming as unexpected. A very good title which fills its 13 minutes without effects of length. Seductive Dreams is a title without history with an odd, and rather annoying, finale where we have the feeling to listen to an old vinyl LP which jumps constantly. An ambitious prelude to the splendid Adagio for Muses! Acheloo offers us here a very beautiful title with a guitar which cries through a superb and a slow circular movement of a melody sculpted in arpeggios which fall and jump up like tears of pearls. This is simply too beautiful and it's a nice music which ends an album which gains to be discovered and devoured with the ears of the heart. Should it be only for this side so sensitive and melancholic which could certainly clean our soul of old tears which always refuse to fall!
Sylvain Lupari (February 15th, 2018) ***¾**
You will find this album on Acheloo's Bandcamp page