“Euphemisms & Aphorisms is a wonderful album which is undoubtedly one of the great surprises so far in 2012”
1 Vices & Virtues 8:10
2 Race into the Unknown 5:46
3 Euphemisms and Aphorisms 9:21
4 Figures of Speech 9:21
5 Philosophical Aphorisms 6:06
6 Dance of Deception 5:55
7 Temporal Ellipses 7:15
8 Mythological Allusions 5:22
(DDL 57:16) (V.F.)
(New Berlin School)
It's by following the well structured paths of Digital Age that Piero Monachello, the man behind Alluste, pursues his surprising ascent in the spheres of contemporary EM. Well sat on his New Berlin School influences, the Italian synthesist weaves in EUPHEMISMS & APHORISMS a wonderful harmonious universe through a splendid sequencer-based approach. Sequences sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sulky and dreamers but always catchy which embroider rhythms of silk. Evolutionary and sometimes fragile rhythms which embrace the influences of Tangerine Dream and Arcane in some good envelopes of a synth as much oniric as cosmic. If Digital Age showed that Alluste has reached a nice maturity, EUPHEMISMS & APHORISMS confirms all of his dimension.
It's a morphic sweetness which opens the album. Swaying layers of a foggy synth spread their oblong pads. Such as invisible hands drawing clouds of ether they are melting into some fine twinkling arpeggios which clink an innocent melody, inviting another sequenced line to engrave a melodious approach which breathes the melodies of the Dream on Legend and Underwater Sunlight. Finely the movement of Vices and Virtues is progressing and evolves by fine sequenced keys which leap of a light rhythm. A rhythm overlapped by other gamboling sequences which ring like touches of typist and which skip stealthily in the breaths of a synth with lines of cosmic mermaids' voices. Sometimes suave and sometimes cherub, this synth which wraps tight the rhythms of EUPHEMISMS & APHORISMS is a weaver of melodies which bind themselves in sequenced movements in constant mutation. On Race into the Unknown it spreads a veil of mist which frees breezes of ether on a rhythm fed of resounding crisscrossed sequences. Sequences with tones and velocity as much changing as discordant which shape a rhythm of a race swirling all along intermittent spirals in a Milky Way encircled by electronic chirpings. The intro of the title-track plunges us into an ambient universe where the synth layers which float over a flock of lost footsteps wrap us of mesmerizing cosmic ambiences à la Jean-Michel Jarre. Some nice sequences pierce this spatial sweetness. Like footsteps in space, they shape a morphic beat. It's a cerebral dance where every footstep shakes a cosmic cloud of dust which floats in denser and more musical layers while the tempo of Euphemisms and Aphorisms switches form for a heavier movement. A movement which zigzags slowly into superb waltzing waves from a synth of which the mists feed the liveliness of a movement which always preserves its poetic approach. It's a wonderful cosmic melody; the kind that leaves its traces in the firmament of the contemporary EM and in our ears.
The intro of Figures of Speech is also ambient. Tears of violin shred its sweetness in tearful laments which cry in clouds of sea sprays. Except that the sequenced movement is more complex and incisive with keys skipping delicately a little before the 4th minute, reproducing their footsteps in the shade of cosmic bells. Other sequences get in. Between two speeds and two tones, they swirl and undulate to create a chaotic dance which gesticulates beneath the dense waves of celestial mists from a synth as charming as singer, converging on a heavy lineal structure where keys are droning in an oscillating symbiosis. It's through static cracklings that Philosophical Aphorisms shakes its dislocated sequences. A melodic rhythm à la Peter Baumann opens to our ears with sequences which skip such as typist's keys beneath synth layers to then hang on to the muffled pulsations of a bass-drum from which the knocks resound in the hollow of silvered waves before switching suddenly towards a more fluid movement. We also feel a clear romantic and harmonious influence of Guido Negraszus on Dance of Deception. The intro is very poetic with this angelic voice which asks that we follow her through dense clouds of mist. Clouds which float and wrap of their dreamlike sweetness some chords which skip with the fragility of glass to lay down a good sequencing pattern, shaping a crisscrossed rhythmic structure where sequences push the anarchy beneath great solos of a dreamy synth. Temporal Ellipses is a jewel which spreads its musicality after a somber cosmic intro with sequences bouncing delicately under the threatening waves from the eye of rotatory synth lines. These sequences lead us towards a harmonious approach where percussions build a very catchy beat and where another line of sequences subdivides its keys, creating a divided rhythm which quivers under a romantic synth stuffed of melodic pads. Mythological Allusions ends the album with a fine rhythmic approach where a thick cloud of sequences skips among the subtle pulsations of a discreet bass line. Then vaporous atmospheres get in to weave synth lines which espouse the cosmic wanderings of JMJarre.
EUPHEMISMS & APHORISMS is a wonderful album from Alluste which is undoubtedly one of the great surprises so far in 2012. It's an album out of nowhere which presents a harmonious universe fed by sequenced approaches in perpetual mutation. Sequences with varied tones and multiple strikings which subdivide and split up evolutionary and coherent rhythms. Melodic and lively rhythms which gambol within very beautiful hold of synths as much diversified as the sequences that it wraps. In brief, it's an album that each fan of New Berlin School owes to possess coming from an artist whose progress reaches an interesting development.
Sylvain Lupari (May 26th, 2012) ****¼*
Available at Alluste Bandcamp