“Yes, the Cosmos will never have been so close to our ears as with those albums like The Long Way to Mars”
1 A Chain Reaction 13:48
2 Magnetosphere 14:24
3 Away From Home 13:01
4 Crepuscular eMotion 7:36
5 Quantum Anomaly 12:50
6 The Long Way to Mars 12:55
(DDL 74:36) (V.F.)
(Roumanian School, Cosmic EM)
The pandemic will have made another victim among artistic creations. This time it was around Alba Ecstasy to see a project worthy of him being canceled. During a privileged visit to the European Space Agency, he was able to familiarize himself with the ExoMars Rover program. He was then invited to compose and perform in concert new music for the launch of the Russian space platform. That was planned for July 2020. The stars would be aligned for a probable launch in 2022. By this event, AE, still inspired by Mars, will deliver a series of albums with an EM composed in the parameters of THE LONG WAY TO MARCH.
A Chain Reaction offers a catchy music with a sequencer that starts 5 jumping keys after a bass pulse. Subsequently, an armada of pulsations and pulsating bubbles occupy its sound panorama where lunar solos flow. The lines of rhythms intersect without ever creating an opening so a series of sequences could escape. Did we perceive this first line to metamorphose into an orchestral layer? In any case, it's on these wings that pulsations, now organic, and sequences, which have become extremely rare at the level of the persuasions of rhythm, linger in a brilliantly creative structure. A timeless structure where the ambiences of Remy and Klaus Schulze are at the height. A rhythmic structure built on keys jumping on the spot and undulations of chirping layers, Magnetosphere offers a minimalist rhythm whose slow migration is decorated by various atmospheric sources. At the beginning we hear thunderclaps muffled by the distance. A light fluty breeze is closely linked to a subtle velocity pushed by an acceleration of the sequencer. Another jumping key, more harmonious and which dreams of being an arpeggio, has escaped from the crowd. Quietly, Magnetosphere takes its bend of drifting rock with percussion effects, playing nervously and sporadically, and a string of sparkles which adds to the pulsating organic effects. No synth solo, there is just a soaring rhythmic backbone. We are in these minimalist structures that AE adorns with decorative rhythmic elements for the pleasure of our ears which seek to doze off. From the first chords of Away from Home, we enter the ambient stratosphere of AE. No rhythms, if not these sequenced undulations which help to make floating the ambiences, but large winged layers where chirping lines, extraterrestrial dialects and jumping balls stray from their floating structures cling. It's quiet, we are really far from everything, and this mass of psybient-like noises gives a whole dimension in my listening room. Very well done as a floating EM!
Crepuscular eMotion is typical of the Roumanian School. A title that does very Indra (I wonder what happens with him) with an intimate structure designed for a key that must jump in zigzag to escape the various sound traps deposited here and there or which are added without warning. I like this genre… Quantum Anomaly is a long title of cosmic atmospheres. At first, we feel the waves lifting us up to bring us to azure winds. Then we drift on this long timeless slide where we feel a life beating with these scattered pulsations and these winds which whistle like a giant suction cup, trying to suck our aura. A futile battle as we stay on this Peaceful Corridor where we can watch various tonal curiosities as we slowly drift down a menacing avenue of reverberations and dissonances. Quietly, Quantum Anomaly becomes intimidating with these lines of reverberation spinning above our ears as we enter a sphere of a hundred sonic twinkles, guiding us to a finale where emptiness seems to be the solution. Driven by wooshh and waashh, The Long Way to Mars ends this other delicious album from Alba Ecstasy with another beautiful, and longer, hypnotic structure à la Crepuscular eMotion. A delight for the ears and to relax. Yes, the Cosmos will never have been so close to our ears as with those albums like THE LONG WAY TO MARS.
Sylvain Lupari (December 7th, 2020) *****
Available at Alba Ecstasy Bandcamp