“We are surfing on our line of emotivity on a long course for sensitive and romantic souls”
1 Pillars of Creation 59:55
(DDL 59:55) (V.F.)
(Cosmic EM)
In an opening that borders on copying and pasting the one of Antares Nebula, PILLARS OF CREATION comes out of the limbo well supported on its bass layer and a dramatic vision already imposed by the celestial trumpet blasts of its synths. The cosmic effects are better defined and are already carried by a turbulence of space winds. In this stride, the sequencer releases an ambient rhythmic line that hesitantly follows a harmonic path. A synth whistles above and when it imitates a Vangelis-like musical idea, the percussions rush in to propel Pillars of Creation towards a good mid-tempo that will stay for a big 20 minutes on the same level of intensity. The synth layers have this high level of emotionality, creating prismatic chants that shake the hairs on our arms. And when the percussion shake again the backbone of Pillars of Creation, around the 4-minute point, the music blooms with emotion that surfs up our arms. The sequencer is the main source of rhythm in this long track. It initiated this rhythm which now rests on a good bass slyly crawling the spine of passion, and good percussions, structuring a solid rhythmic wall adorned by the tingling of cymbals. The keyboard carves out lunar tunes that are enhanced by the synthesizer. Andrey Klimkovsky, regular as a Swiss clock, leads the charge regularly with bursts of synths, and sometimes percussions, always raising the level of these moving orchestrations that force our eardrums, for almost 12 minutes, to communicate with the threshold of our emotions. And each time, the musical structure and the atmospheres of the title increase their level of emotionality. The Russian musician is a master in the art of creating his cosmic panoramas. His effects invade the passionate curve of his music, giving the perception that this long track of almost 60 minutes slows down momentarily. If the piano was the provider of chills in Antares Nebula, the synth is its alter-ego in PILLARS OF CREATION, which is much heavier and more thirsty for rhythm. The point of the 20th minute proposes a first stationary phase of the music which little by little slows down its rhythmic race before falling in a true phase of cosmic ambiences a little before the 25th minute. We are plunged in a black hole, a kind of cosmic turbulence with perfumes of Jean-Michel Jarre. The synth remains in AK mode with its aeolian chants that always stay high enough in the field of music-to-give-chills.
The sequencer emerges quietly almost 2 minutes later. Its hesitant step has a more grey tint. Its rhythmic line starts to gambol under a sonic sky filled of galactic effects, while the synth still perfumes our ears with its lunar rhapsodies that have been bewitching us for almost 30 minutes. It's this time that the percussions choose to reappear and thus to build a rhythmic framework which is quietly forged. Assailed by an orchestral cloud from the mellotron, the rhythm remains below the initial mid-tempo. It's always heavy and serves as an anchor to a panorama that excites the nest of our ears. New impulse and new dynamism! The percussions rework an approach that surprises with this rhythmic ride which is resurfacing. It shapes a down-tempo that is on the alert with dramatic orchestrations tied to this structure always so fixed at the limits of our emotions. The crescendo builds itself with all the attention and apprehension it commands as the slow staccato arrives a few seconds later. There is no ecstasy in this coitus interrupted too early as Pillars of Creation sinks into its 3rd no-rhythm phase where the rhythm loses its directions to atmospherical symphonic elements. The quavering violins and weeping trumpets are trapped in a surfaceless landscape where the rate of reverberations remains the only element of passion. These instruments hidden in the interstices of the synthesizers are finally replaced by apocalyptic harmonies borrowed from the notebook of Vangelis. These elements reignite the passions when Pillars of Creation explodes for a pharaonic finale after the 45 minutes mark. Skillfully dosed by very good electronic percussions, the ecstasy comes before the coitus in a final skilfully built for a cosmic and symphonic electronic rock which doesn't have the same sentimental value as Antares Nebula but which transported us at arm's length on 60 minutes full of emotions.
Ah...how beautiful the music is! I approached PILLARS OF CREATION, the second part of Andrey Klimkovsky's Nebulae Galaxies Clusters series, with some trepidation. The first few minutes seemed to be so much copied from the first part of this series, Antares Nebula, that I had literally lost the desire to explore PILLARS OF CREATION a little further. But it's not knowing the Russian musician who takes us by surprise by exploring a more rock vision of his EM and so the concept is tied up so that we surf on our line of emotivity on a long course for sensitive and romantic souls. A very good album!
Sylvain Lupari (August 11th, 2021) ****½*
Available at Andrey Klimkovsky Bandcamp