“The more Alluste ages, the more he goes out of his comfort zone in order to offer a more thoughtful EM which borders the one of the great names”
1 Cepheids 10:35 2 Luminous Sphere of Plasma 9:16 3 Euclida 8:43 4 Stars' Sons 12:36 5 Dying Star 12:09 6 Eclipsing Binaries 6:50 Alluste Music (CD 60:10) (V.F.) (Ambient sequenced rhythms)
A long drone breeze, a long expiration twisted and filled of suffers and of iodine is invading our ears as soon as the first seconds of Cepheids have pierced the silence of STARS. Synth tears, a little like celestial sighs, moderate this psychotronic approach whereas the delicate steps of the sequencer are climbing an imaginary staircase. We hear wooden splash in the back, as well as layers of voices, giving a seraphic depth to the first minutes of Cepheids which spreads its armor of ambient rhythm with a delicate swing of the pendulum which makes slowly oscillate its sequences in the mist of ivory. This tick-tock takes the form of a soft intersidereal gallop on which is only missing a solid momentum while that synth layers establish a climate of tranquility. The movement of sequences get loose from the anesthesia approach of the movement, tracing a circular rhythm which oscillates with more heaviness, even with a little more speed, in a pattern that will remind to some of you the structure of Vermillion Sands by Chris Franke. Moreover it's what jumps the most at ears in listening to STARS; the similarity between the Italian synthesist and the sequenced harmonies as well as the patterns of rhythms of Tangerine Dream's former member. And it's even more perceptible in the very beautiful Stars' Sounds and its first part, rather ambiospherical, that is filled of romance and of melancholy and where the electronic percussions and the hopping keys of the sequencer are bickering for the second part under good solos interlacing in the fragrances of Pacific Coast Highway. Alluste takes a new step with STARS! The one who liked, he still likes it by the way, an electronic approach centered on the sequencer movements, as much at the level of the rhythms as the harmonies, aims here at an album where the synths are more dominant with good solos and also with good effects which flirt with a universe favorable to an overflowing imagination. With a lot of ambiospherical introductions and rhythms which progress with their shadows and float in the drizzle of the cosmos, Alluste offers a decoration which is as much lunar as organic besides touching aptly this interlude where Tangerine Dream traded the analogue for the digital technology. It's thus that the flavors of the Jive period are drifting with those which guided the first steps of Chris Franke in solo. STARS is evidently bound to cosmos. And it's doubtless the most ambiocosmic work of the Italian synthesist to date with a great deal of ambient rhythms which seem all arise from the depths of the cosmos in order to spread their protean figures in atmospheres which are not very far from the ambient psychotronic art. The opening of Luminous Sphere of Plasma drags us in a kind of cosmic forest where lives in secrecy an insectivorous fauna which develops a concert of drones for very juicy larynx. Fluorescent synth layers lay down their anesthetizing veils while far off, beatings of wings and/or muffled explosions awaken a carousel of sequenced keys which swirls very awkwardly. Other keys, more musical, join this ambient ballet which suddenly radiates of one thousand colors with this thick cloud of sequences with dissimilar tones and jumps that are forming a cell of ambient rhythm underneath a dense coat of synth with now celestial harmonies. It's a good ambient rhythm which, in spite of a subtle hatching of swiftness, respects the signature of Alluste's movements of sequences in spiral.
The same goes for Euclida where the sequences sound like harmonies pinched by a kind of guitar. The arrangements and the cosmic particles are always sounding very Software, while the harmonies bring out without appeal TD's Underwater Sunlight period. The movement remains ambient, in spite of its ritornellos of circular rhythms, with threadlike serpentines which spread bouquets of synth to the aromas psychotroniques; new elements of charm in this last album of the Italian synth man. We stay in the field of ambient and cosmic drifting rhythms with a slow spiraled structure which releases strands of sequences which delicately vary the beatings of their keys in the dense ambiocosmic shroud of Dying Star. I like this way Alluste plays with the reflections of his sequenced rhythms. That creates a deep impression, both at the level of the rhythms than of these melodies embroidered in the sequencer lines. Here, the movement adopts a long delicately stroboscopic route to which gets grafted astral voices and lines of glittered sequences which flow as a shower of quiet prism. Eclipsing Binaries stands out with its immediate structure of rhythm which makes its rebel keys jump on a rodeo pattern. The line of sequence makes long loops, unfasten its keys which turn into a form of syncopated circle. Layers of synth, filled of nasal cosmic harmonies, spread sonic perfumes of the Hyperborea period, burying this rodeo which waves like a big worm of sands before that the swiftness gets a hold on Eclipsing Binaries. Bass drums and wooden jingles surround the quicker march of the sequenced keys while that soft solos perfume our ears of very electronic airs and are widening the layers so to maintain the music in the very cosmic spirit of STARS; a very nice album of EM that will win you more and more at each listening. The sign of a mature composer who enjoys getting out of his comfort zone!
Sylvain Lupari (March 5th, 2016) ***½**
Available at Alluste Bandcamp