“Again, another good EM album from Alluste with his sequencing patterns which have now the company of good synth harmonies and solos”
1 Red Clouds 6:31 2 Mystery Cluster 13:22 3 Distant Voices 7:42 4 Space Lagoon 6:40 5 The Dark Place 7:32 6 Endless Mystery III 6:29 7 Alien Rain 4:57 8 Wormhole 8:01 Alluste Music
(DDL 61:18) (VF) (Berlin School)
It's with a shroud of sadness that Red Clouds crosses the silence to reach our ears. The first arpeggios are dark, and they dance in the void with a veil of melancholy. A slight scented mist of humming embellishes the scene of an astral vision. And when the synth espouses the funeral march of the arpeggios, the music becomes more playful. Drum jingles lingers without thinking of a form of rhythm, leaving Alluste's magic fingers drawn harmoniously beautiful solos and engineer a movement of the sequencer which lays down these floating rhythms. Circular rhythms where the keys come and go and bounce meekly in the footprint of the melody. The layers of voice become more abundant and create a wall of atmospheres that a more accentuated movement of the sequencer tames, while it remains less than 2 minutes to Red Clouds. The first thing that strikes me in this last opus is this ambience very close to the first works of EM that the Italian synthesist manages to inject in ALIEN WORLDS. Since a few albums, Piero Monachello is doing well by daring more and more synth solos. And on this album, they became as melodious as his ritornellos of minimalist sequences which have embroidered the dimensions of his first albums. Hence these influences that I related with the music of Software. Now, Alluste has become a complete musician and this is reflected in his compositions, as in the beautiful Endless Mystery III and his nostalgic piano which melts its emotions on a splendid ballet of rotating sequences. Mist slicks of the 70's and seraphic voices have become the passports of a world still in motion, but definitely more musical. Even dreamlike.
Mystery Cluster is a long title which evolves in 3 phases. It starts with a delicate line of sequence which oscillates with a harmonious fluidity. The mysterious haze which has preceded this sluggish rhythm extends its hold with an even more opaque density coming from cavernous breezes as the arpeggios emerge to make tinkle a melody which flows faster than the rhythm but remains stationary. This first movement runs out of steam in an envelope of ambiances which has become more chthonic. Yet, a first ear worm is released. A mesh of bass pulsations, which go up and down, with sequences which hiccup while hopping in layers of mists and voices feed a second phase without a story which stops abrupt around the 10th minute. And it's after a brief appearance of a radiations' mass that Mystery Cluster will finish its long journey in elements of sequences and of ambiences very Franke and Tangerine Dream. Distant Voices navigates between the atmospheres of its heavy layers of fog and voices and its ambient rhythm built on small sequences with urgent palpitations. The electronic orchestrations are well drawn in this title which is closer to a lunar ballad with melodic sequences which shake the tranquility of those more rhythmic, but which are still too frail to shake the atmosphere. There are a lot of emotions to the square thumb in this title which is still quite musical. Under these elephantine layers, Space Lagoon frees a skeletal structure of a fluid rhythm which is mounted on a bed of sequences with very tight woven oscillations. Sails of seraphic voices embrace this fragile approach which is swallowed up after 2 minutes by a gargantuan bass veil, giving the necessary impetus so that the title reaches the bases of a good catchy ballad. The ambiences of The Dark Place are imaged in a black hole where a horde of electronic sparrow roams. The chirps are also as enchanting as imaginable in a setting that does not reflect the ambiances of the title.
But whatever! Alluste succeeds in bringing back TD elements of the Jive years again on this shimmering bed of sequences which sparkles like a river and its stationary waters. Too little too late, another rhythm structure is born a few seconds before the final. After the very good Endless Mystery III, Alien Rain accosts our earlobes with a rhythmic structure which goes from neutral to light speed in a movement that fans of the Italian synthesist will recognize as his sonic signature. Movement whose slowness, and especially its decor of ambiences, will seduce more than one with the imposing Wormhole. Slowly oscillating between beautiful layers of lunar orchestrations, the rhythm gradually reaches its cruising speed without too much to do or put too much, bringing just some very good EM to our ears.
Sylvain Lupari (June 21st, 2018) *****
Available on Alluste Bandcamp