“Obviously AE does not bring reinvents the wheel with this ambient work, but he adds his personal vision which is more romantic and surely more warm in the Over the Clouds”
1 Over the Clouds 1 19:42 2 Over the Clouds 2 14:11 3 Over the Clouds 3 6:20 4 Over the Clouds 4 7:25 Alba Ecstasy Music
(DDL 47:38) (V.F.) (Ambient Music)
After a good reception from his audience regarding The Floating Body, Alba Ecstasy decided to undertake a new chapter in his career; the ambient music. This new series will be called OVER THE CLOUDS. The artwork of the album, always available in downloadable format only on the Bandcamp site of the Romanian musician, is an evidence itself. Alba Ecstasy is aiming for nothing less than the depths of the cosmos! The range is wide and the possibilities as great for the one whose creativity is no longer a shadow of a doubt. And the most interesting thing about all this is that the first two long titles of this new project are available on Alba Ecstasy’s YouTube channel. And I love this way that Mihail Adrian Simion has to demystify the art of EM conception.
Over the Clouds 1 plunges us into an interstellar universe with immense morphic strata that intertwine their sleepy effects while serving as a bed for the Arp Odyssey's solos. Sound effects, borrowed from the waltz movements of space shuttle ships, as seen in films and documentaries about the explorers of the cosmos, embellish this long movement that is ideal for taming insomnia. Over the Clouds 2 begins with a delicate movement of the sequencer that is taken from the Roland MSQ-100. No, I did not suddenly become a connoisseur! It's rather the explanations provided by Alba Ecstasy in his video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6cLWPFQgHM that raises my level of knowledge. The ambient rhythm respects these jumping and ascending movements of Klaus Schulze's Berlin School style. Sound effects, that we have already heard in Jean-Michel Jarre's catalog, adorn this interstellar rise while riffs and chords from keyboards add a mysterious and melodious side to a music that would be naked without these great winged movements of the Arp Odyssey. AE adds a bit of intensity here and there and very scattered solos which seduce a listening that the musician never takes for granted. Alba Ecstasy does not reinvent the wheel here, but he brings his vision, sometimes very romantic, to a genre that is exploited to the end since the early 70's. And I think here of those layers as attractive as touching which sail on the Dark Sea of Over the Clouds 3. A beautiful ambient music track with just enough intensity to thrill our senses. Over the Clouds 4 is built on the same principle as Over the Clouds 2, at somethings near. The movement of the sequencer is more fluid, tracing good hypnotic zigzag to a rhythmic structure always in ambient mode. The tones of the sequencer sparkle like organic flowers or chirps of cosmic sparrows under the benevolence of a synth whose slow anesthetic movements weave orchestrations a bit sinister.
For lovers of ambient music, this OVER THE CLOUDS by Alba Ecstasy does not revolutionize the genre! I would say that it does not bring something new to it. But it's well done, and one listens to it like the good albums in the ambient style. And I quite like these movements of ambient rhythms that the synthesist from Romania offers on parts 2 and 4. Titles that will easily appeal to fans of Indra and even those who devoured the period In Blue by Klaus Schulze.
Sylvain Lupari (November 24th, 2018) ***½** SynthSequences.com
Available at Alba Ecstasy's Bandcamp