Alpha Wave Movement Cerulean Skies (2017)

“A very beautiful album, a little bit complex at times, which will know how to fulfill the expectations of AWM fans”

1 As Above so it Flows 5:37 2 Organic Metamorphosis 14:21 3 Thermospheric Induction 5:32 4 Lattices of Light 9:17 5 Lenticular Forms 8:57 6 Cerulean Sky 6:29 HRR170401 (CD-r/DDL 50:18) (V.F.) (Ambient, soft sequenced beats)

You remember these delicate carillons which paved the walking in the violent climbing Escalator from Michael Stearns' Chronos album? It is in this way that As Above so it Flows begins CERULEAN SKIES. It's quieter though. Much quieter and it will never explode of fury. And you should not trust this first title before judging this other beautiful and very creative opus from Alpha Wave Movement. Inspired by the beauties which glide above our heads, by the courses of the clouds and by formations of masses of atmosphere which displays a more rebel, even devastating, beauty, this last album of AWM is in the continuity, although more theatrical, of the splendid Kinetic. One of the very good albums of EM in 2016! Between Ray Lynch and the Kitaro of the Canyon and Polydor years, As Above so it Flows spreads an oriental texture with gongs and prisms of which the iridescences forge a peaceful rhythm which softly is cherished by songs of synth with smooth fluty harmonies, as angelic. The finale injects a soft moment of tension with an accumulation of strata with tints and airs of which the diversity melts in the void. Organic Metamorphosis floats with the shadow of a threat in a sky speckled of sound particles. The title flirts more with the empty spaces than the heavens with its guitar which crumbles its riffs and of which the delicacy is snatched by a line of sequences. The ambient movement reveals a rather serene rhythmic veil, with the effects of jolts which draw an awkward line where the keys skip of impatience. The wealth of the title is rather Pharaonic with all its elements which converge into an immense cumulus. And there we understand where Gregory T. Kyryluk wants to bring us! In the heart of a storm of which the creation starts from the ground. The intensity reaches its paroxysm at around the 7th minute. The percussions come along and drum a soft fury with riffs which swirl with more liveliness and whose harmonies eventually weave a melody which hangs on as much to the curiosity, one would say a mass of birds encircled in this huge cumulus, than the senses.

We say that when the music composer connects with his listener, the goal is reached. And it's peculiarly succeeding here with a beautiful vision of the climatic jostles which eat away our planet. Thermospheric Induction is just like this climate change; jostling of elements, dark and very alarming. The rhythm is built around deaf beatings and carillons which get into a panic in the raging winds. Lattices of Light proposes a very beautiful movement of sequences which dance under an avalanche of strata of which the orchestral salvos take to the summits of the tops. Gregory T. Kyryluk revisits his first influences here which are very Berlin School but with a touch of very film intensity. Still here, the plethora of layers and effects never does shade to the rhythm or to the arrangements. It's a good sequenced beat with a sweet touching side. A little as in the time of The Edge of Infinity or still Steve Roach's Now/Traveller eras. The circular rhythm of Lenticular Forms is suspended in a mass of atmospheres and of nebulous effects extracted from a synth which always lets filter those melodies forged in the movements of rhythm in this album. A little as if this rhythm spoke to us by infiltrating an insurmountable musical itch. Here, this rhythm sparkles with so much innocence that it's going between our ears as soon as it can. Once again, the links between the first steps of Gregory T. Kyryluk and those of Steve Roach in Western Spaces are too obvious to be ignored. The title-track brings us back a little bit in the territories of As Above so it Flows, a little as if we just had go around the world in 45 minutes. On the other hand, Cerulean Sky flows with more serenity. It's a beautiful landscape of meditative atmospheres which decorate this cerulean blue of a sky always very rich here of bursting tones of everywhere, such as thousands of prisms in the purple colors in the huge nebulous caresses by a synth in mode intensity.

In order to well illustrate CERULEAN SKIES, Gregory T. Kyryluk talks about a rhythmic dialogue and synthesized atmospheres. I like the analogy! It's peculiar to all these works created from ashes to bones in the mouth of electronic machines and synthesizers. And specially here, where Alpha Wave Movement takes a jealous care of well connecting with his listeners. A very beautiful album, a little bit complex at times, which will know how to fill the expectations of AWM fans and those ones fond of an EM which penetrates shyly into the borders of the New Age or of ambient music for a meditative journey.

Sylvain Lupari (May 15th, 2017) *****

SynthSequences.com

Available at Harmonic Resonance Recordings Bandcamp