“If you enjoyed the minimalist paths of Irrgarten, this one will still enchant you. This is as good with a good dosage of ether fragrances”
1 Die verzauberte Nacht 16:34 2 Licht am See 15:21 3 Wellen 13:09 4 Spiegebild 13:13
Nord Music (DDL 58:18) (V.F.) (New Berlin School)
Flayers spread a tones perfume of old organ, letting even some sound elements to twitter, whereas notes of a false piano cavort discreetly under the caresses of a synth and of its solos which crawl in the air tinted in the fragrances of the analog years. The ears on the alert and the senses delighted by this totally unsuspected approach by Andreas Meyer, the introduction of Die verzauberte Nacht wears marvelously the seal of its meaning. We are in the gardens of the enchanted nights of Klaus Schulze, who bears definitely the power of his influences on the music of the Düsseldorf musician with this very ethereal approach where the perfumes of ether are floating like in the nice time all over the first part of Die verzauberte Nacht. A movement of sequences makes its keys flicker actively a little after the point of 8 minutes. The keys sparkle of their crystal-clear tones. And the cloud of their radiances draws a delicate wavelike motion that some lively bass pulsations and sober electronic percussions straighten in a movement of vertical rhythm. Like these morphic techno where the arms stay as flabby as the legs which skip from a footstep to another in a kind of anesthetic state. Another line of sequences makes sing its keys in a formula of jerky harmonies, forging a chorus of nightingale which chatter without hearing the other one. And like a master who knows by heart the rudiments of the minimalist music, Andreas Meyer flavours his structure of these soft solos and of these layers of voice borrowed from the attic of Klaus Schulze, always in his In Blue era. Released some 2 months after his first part of his sonic saga on labyrinths, IRRGARTEN 2 pulls us quite slowly towards another facet of the Andreas Meyer universe. Always hang on his minimalist style, the one who had seduced the Internet users with his first album Elektronische Erinnerungen, released on September 2015, doesn't seem to suffer at all from the blank note by realizing a 3rd album within 5 months. But a mass production rhymes with quality? Rhymes with originality? Rhymes with the passion to slide his emotions from the ears of the listener to his soul? I have my doubts, but let's hear!
One of the big differences between both albums is this very ethereal atmosphere which wraps the music here. The delicate circular movement of sequences in the opening of Licht am See is blanketed of these synth layers to the very sedative harmonies. Little by little, some rebel beatings get grafted. Like balls which spin on a conveyor, these crystalline droplets skip against the harmonies of this structure of ambient gravitational rhythm which remains coiled up in these layers with subtle tones of old organ. And contrary to his good old habits, Andreas Meyer thwarts our certainty by a good structure of cerebral rhythm which pounds of its uncountable sources of beatings under the insurmountable hold of these synth layers to the flavors of conquest and of chloroform. It's the very good track that I stuck in my iPod next to the remarkable Das Labyrinth. The art of seduction by the threads of bewitchment! Andreas Meyer masters it to perfection. Wellen offers a basis rather simplistic; a ritornello of 7 chords which waves in tears of synth and in violent sound waves which are crashing on the banks of nothingness. This harmonious sequence marks our brain of the seal of the servitude. Gradually, Sztakics István Attila, (yes yes you read well; Andreas Meyer is Nord and Nord isSztakics István Attila) increases the velocity and the strength of the rhythm with muted pulsations and other sequences which deeply flash such as fireflies parked in crazy winds. The percussions which are added increase the vigor of the rhythm which remains on the other hand always rather ambient with these soporific layers which coo, float and wrap our subconscious by spreading their orchestral wings, as their astral ones. This soft hypnotic rhythm finds its embryonic comfort with a finale which returns to the cradle of its introduction. Without too big originality, but with an opening which inhales the cosmic storm, Spiegebild leans on the same model as Wellen, but in a more ethereal and a more ambient approach and Die verzauberte Nacht for the blooming of its morphic down-tempo structure.
Now! Does a mass production go with quality? Yes! Goes with originality? No! Goes with this passion to slide his emotions from the ears of the listener to his soul? Maybe! That depends if one likes the minimalist music and all these small treasures which get add here and there without ever paving really the way to dullness. I really liked this IRRGARTEN 2! Except that I am of the kind that minimalist music enchants, enthralls. And Andreas Meyer is very good in this domain. It's a nice album, with a vision rather different from the first one and where the labyrinths of Andreas Meyer are clearly more surrounded with mystery.
Sylvain Lupari (February 15th, 2016) ***½**
Available at Nord Bandcamp