“Nothing ever goes wrong in the universe of Alba Ecstasy with this other fair album still impregnates of Mirage's universe”
1 Caffeine Reaction 8:00 2 Phenols 17:20 3 Bergenon 14:24 Alba Ecstasy Music (DDL 39:44) (Berlin School of the 80's) (VF)
Ouf!!! Let's say that the music of Caffeine Reaction is just like its title. Cracklings and sound effects show up in the silence, while a line of sequences, in the tones as much crystalline as these frozen flakes in Klaus Schulze's Mirage, waddle with a vision of aggressiveness in its crystal clear tone. There are 40 seconds in the meter and already a line of bass pulsations is hammering an ostinato beat which synth solos cover of a melodious approach unique to the world of EM. Lively, this introduction is also beat by bass drums, entailing then Caffeine Reaction in an infernal structure which reminds enormously all of the potential of Klaus Schulze at the time of Mirage. There are a lot of references to Klaus Schulze and his Mirage album here, and with good reason! This last album is the core of this 3rd album of new music from Alba Ecstasy in 2018. Phenols is a good example with a structure which allies intensity and gravity, a little as if Crystal Lake's opening was truncated of its crystalline minimalist attract. But the resultant is attractive just as much, otherwise more poignant. After a short intro of sound drizzle and jerky keyboard riffs, the movement of pearled sequences of Phenols spreads its oscillating waves which undulate beneath the spasms of the bass pulsations. The structure adds additional lines, both at the level of rhythm and harmony, to fatten well the music in tones and beats. Phenols evolve with these elements while showing a latent accelerating tangent fed by jerks and spasms in its rhythm, a little as in Caffeine Reaction but in a slower mode, while the ambiences and the décor get stuffed of electronic noises and of cosmic effects. We are in the kingdom of Schulze with the Alba Ecstasy's contemporary vision. The title-track proposes a very different vision with a film structure, a kind of darker intense suspense. The rhythm is linear and skips relentlessly with an impression of friction, like the wheels on a rail which is dirtied of hissing vapors. Minimalist, the movement offers nevertheless some subtle variances, giving to BERGENON a kind of double-life while it remains stubborn and always coated by these mists filled with tonal drizzle. And like a train without destination running with pain and suffering through some hostile plains, the vapors of rhythm decrease without stopping the pace. And in the end, that takes all of its sense. A fair album where we take out Caffeine Reaction to put it in the iPod, section best moments in Alba Ecstasy's music in 2018. Sylvain Lupari (April 27th, 2018) ***¼**
Available on Alba Ecstasy's Bandcamp