“I must admit that I was very impressed by the music of AeroGRAPHIC whose complexity in its frame ends up finding its way to seduce”
1 AeroGRAPHIC 6:07
2 Children play in the Sand 2:32
3 Fatamorgana 4:45
4 Slow-motion in Darkness 8:52
5 Running Old Boy 7:52
6 Voices 3:36
7 Admiral Kolchak 7:45
8 Dance of the Dead 11:57
(CD/DDL 53:30) (V.F.)
(Cosmic Electronic Jaaz-Rock)
I sometimes get emails from EM artists to find out if I can write a review about their music. That's how I got this little thing to discover from a Croatian artist, Mario Rosando, if the world of Jean-Michel Jarre is needed from you. Released in 2014 on an independent label, AeroGRAPHIC is an album strongly influenced by the cosmic and rhythmic visions of the famous French musician. Everything is there! Cosmic decor, orchestral and astral violins, sound allegories, glowing arpeggios that follow the curves of the sequences or percussions as well as catchy rhythms. And despite all this very realistic decor, Aero2graph retains an identity that should delight the fans of an EM that is seeking for a music not too easy to tame than to take the paths too well known to the one to whom we owe the most beautiful odes cosmic of the universe.
A wind of Orion and its dusts of stars, a tonal cover that one pushes towards the cosmos; the opening of the title-track is like those of the genre in the 70's. Some violin pads and another pad which moves forward by doing its jerky steps and hop goes the beat of AeroGRAPHIC which prepares to conquer our ears in waiting. This is the first surprise of AeroGRAPHIC! If the rhythm is catchy with sober box-percussions and pads of jerky violins, the melody which is nesting here is kind of deconstructed. A little as if the piano played it back to front. We are thus lulled by this cosmic rhythm with the strong perfumes of Jean-Michel Jarre, especially in the orchestrations and the effects of cascading layers, while the piano puts down a melody of the Free-Jazz style . It's strange at first, except that the hallucinating cosmic setting of the 70's allows us to gradually get used to it as well as titles quite similar, like Fatamorgana which is a real gem if you like great percussions and a synth solo as dreamy as those of Frédéric Mercier in Music from France. Speaking of Frederic Mercier, it is to him that I think when I hear the short and harmonious Children play in the Sand. Not all titles are marked with the seal of Jarre. Take Slow-motion in Darkness and its convoluted structure that develops with jerky rhythmic impulses that merge into more ambient phases. Again, the game of drum is amazing for electronic percussions. It drags this slow structure of ambivalent rhythm between good sound effects and this envelope of cosmic Jazz that is at the origin of an elusive melodious approach. It demands a few listenings ...
Running Old Boy is a two-phase title. Its opening sparkles with thick patches of tonal snow floating between two spheres. Bursting with shrill voices, this ice cover that is shaken in the cosmos releases cosmic particles and apocalyptic synth lines. The rhythm that is emerging is of the static e-rock genre. It gets free of these static vibes to become a pure e-rock that strikes a wall of atmospheres fed by gargantuan oscillations. Crystal-clear chords are the first to help the dying rhythm of Running Old Boy which is recovering and still surfs in a static envelope soaked in the cosmic coat of arms of Jean-Michel Jarre. If there was an FM hit out of this album, it would be Voices and its Vangelis/Jarre alloy on a structure as exciting as the fascinating beauty of its melodious vision. And always, Mario Rosando weaves a core of complexity that enchants the ear at each new listening. Admiral Kolchak is a slow title structured on floating layers and percussions. Without precise rhythm, the music is covered with solos as melancholic as a saxophonist exorcising his spleen on a point of the third of the Moon. And since nothing is cast in the ease in AeroGRAPHIC, the moods wake up with a drum irruption in a Free Jazz style. Dance of the Dead ends this fascinating rendezvous with the music of Mario Aero2graph Rosando with a vision that conforms to the funeral marches. The movement is weary, not cheerful and hammered by a slow pace. If sometimes this rhythm gives itself bumpy attributes, the synths exalt these fatal songs that are similar to these marches of All Saints Day's tomorrows in a vision as festive as very austere.
I must admit that I was very impressed by the music of Aero2graph and by the album AeroGRAPHIC which would be his third. For the pleasure of the ears curious to discover this world of tonal illuminations of EM, Mario Rosando fills up our ears to the rim with a music whose complexity ends up finding its way to seduce. One thing is sure, is that it is very well written and well put in its convoluted cocoon. Since this album, Aero2graph has produced a series of E.P. and/or singles that breathe from these contradictory poles that are the charms of this amazing album that is certainly worth to have a listen to.
Sylvain Lupari (September 24th, 2019) ***½**
Available at Aero2graph Bandcamp