“Soft hypnotic rhythms and sweet ethereal moods...Alluste's receipe is always as charming as the best moments of EM in the late 80's”
1 Sirius 12:12
2 The Rama Empire 8:49
3 The Longyou Caves 8:34
4 Nan Madol 10:39
5 Nimrud Lens 10:41
6 The Stone Age Tunnels 9:01
7 Metal Cramps 9:21
8 The Baalbek Enigma 9:22
9 The Giza Plateau 5:18
10 Gobleki Tepi 10:35
11 Ancient Devices 9:05
12 Forgotten Misteries 11:17
Alluste Music (DDL 115:00)
(New Berlin School) (V.F.)
Sonic fauna, active like a volcano breathing its bubbling bubbles of magma, tickles our ears with this very ambiospheric intro from Sirius. A line of sneaky sequences makes its keys frolic and jumping secretly in a rhythmic corridor which is very familiar to us. The signature of Alluste then takes place between our ears while Sirius invites us to a sonic rendezvous which is about 2 hours of New Berlin School EM style. This clandestinely beating rhythm gathers its luminous hoops, the echoes of riffs of misshapen lines, ethereal layers and sighs of tearful violins which weave a cosmic harmonic envelope and whose orchestrations are ultimately chased by the fluttering of sequences and the clattering of percussions . A percussive blend which redirects the rhythmic structure of Sirius in ascending spheres and especially towards the delicate harmonies whistled by a dreamy synth. Sirius kicks off another album by the Italian synthesist where the soft rhythms, always as dreamy as harmonic, deploy their long skeletons of cilopodas creeping in astral rodeo figures and whose subtle mutations rebel in a sonic fauna a little more psychotronic than Alluste's previous albums. In fact, FORGOTTEN MISTERIES is a logical follow-up to the progression of Alluste who was getting bolder with Stelliferous Era, published in early 2014. A bit like if Piero Monachello revealed a little secret of his influences; or the atmospheres of ether and anesthetic reveries of Neuronium.
The Rama Empire follows the paths a bit psychedelicosmic of Sirius. A delicate movement of sequence emerges from this artificial fog. It makes its keys frolic, with childish jumping patterns, in a delicate refrain as captivating as hypnotic in which strange organic voices croak. True to his rhythmic signature, Alluste makes full use of the 9 minutes of The Rama Empire to breathe new skin at this rhythm which unfolds its skeleton in the secrets of the sleeping mists, seraphic riffs and the peacefulness of artificial voices. And with 12 tracks whose average duration is 8 minutes, except for the short The Giza Plateau and its movement of sequences mounted on sharp and jerky steps sheared by good solos, Alluste has all the leisure to properly restructure his rhythms and draw ambient phases es over ambient phases, both cosmic and esoteric. After a The Longyou Caves, which dreams and romances between the ambient and a rhythm of all that is most seductive and delicate, Nan Madol impregnates us with an attractive cosmic approach and a superb movement of sequences where the keys shimmer and twinkle very tightly in their shadows. The movement is progressive, and the rhythm ends up dismembering to offer an attractive gallop of sequences which run awkwardly under the clatter of cymbals, muffled percussions à la Jean-Michel Jarre and solos more melodious than improvised. And the more we advance in FORGOTTEN MISTERIES, the more we enter a rather daring universe where Alluste isn't afraid to try new approaches. The voices that blow in jerky harmonies in Nimrud Lens form a membrane of ambient rhythm which is gilded the structure by elven voices. The harmony of the rhythm is contagious and threads its way into the ear like a verse carrying yet unknown charms. The whole thing becomes organic at the halfway point before sinking into an ambiocosmic environment where a sleeping rhythm pulsates in a carousel of sequences with crystalline hues but abstract twists.
In the genre, there is Ancient Devices which is just as captivating. Did we like Nan Madol's sneaky rhythmic approach? We will fall then for the superb but very magnetizing morphic movement of The Stone Age Tunnels and its sly fluid rhythm which meditates in a splendid ambiocosmic fauna. A particularly good title which gets lost a little, but which is always good to listen again. Ambient and dark, Metal Cramps takes off its repentant monk's garb to let hear another movement of sequences dancing with the shadows of their little feet in this pattern of sequencing patterns whose series flow like cascades and in the bundled sonic canons in an ambiocosmic grip. Alluste has always the scent of Software in his nose, as evidenced by the lively and harmonic rhythms of The Baalbek Enigma, as well as of Gobleki Tepi and its ascending curves which crawl under sweet suave solos. And the title-track confirms even more the hold of the duo Mergener-Weisser on the artistic approach of Alluste with a great ambient rhythm which is gradually dislocated in fogs of astral voices, cosmic effects and lines of rhythms which undulate and sparkle in a movement of shimmering sequences and its gentle mutations. These fragmentations of rhythms and their deviations in corridors which crisscross themselves beneath a sonic sky clad with these usual sweetness and these new audacities that make of FORGOTTEN MISTERIES an album which doesn't shake up the gentle progression of Alluste but which underlines always and again the very great harmonic fingering of the Italian synthesist.
Sylvain Lupari (October 6th, 2014) ***½**
Available at Alluste Bandcamp