“Fragments - Fragments is a strong overdose of white noises in a psybient style which is not too far from the premises of ambient Berlin School”
1 Frigments - Fragments 2:23 2 Destination Unknown 14:02 3 Quoi et Moi 12:27 4 Where-ever However 13:50 5 Beautiful Moments 10:38 6 If you Are 8:53 7 Slaap Stil Mijn Kind 4:25 8 Strawberries 4-ever 5:33 9 OGF 5:43 BySenses Music
(CD 77:55) (V.F.)
(Psybient)
It is known; each year, and no matter the domains, sees appearing a name that will leave a delicious sound imprint. BySenses is a musical project from the Belgian musician Didier Dewachtere. Aficionado of an EM which converges between several styles, from Jean Michel Jarre to Tangerine Dream while passing by Kraftwerk and Vangelis, Didier Dewachtere gives the kick-off to a career that sounds very interesting by inviting us in a unique and audacious experience where the music, and its sounds, crosses the boundaries of another dimension. A psybient style that has difficulty in undoing its links from a more traditional EM, FRIGMENTS-FRAGMENTS is a first album which will call back the experiments between the rhythms and the psybiences such as put in music by BySenses' biggest source of inspiration; Klaus Schulze. On rhythms constantly fragmented and ambiences which refuse the doors of the serenity, BySenses raises a sonic high wall where the sounds vibrate and spit deformed shadows which shine in tones of cracklings.
It's therefore with an ambient but deafening buzz, sounding like a space shuttle giving birth, that the title-track is heading between our two lobes. Synth pads hang behind a soundscape that gradually scatters its radioactive clouds to present us Destination Unknown. The heavy buzzing loses some of its wrath in thin lines of astral voices. The ambiences are always at the zenith of a strange emotivity where the absolute black, and its cabalistic imprint, waltz and floats with this strange choir that comes from noises. And sweet sequences come alive. From their roaring tones, they sound like bumblebees out of breath, they pulsate to freeze a rhythm that wavers in clouds of dissonance. The link with Totem is not really far here. After a brief passage where the rhythm dances in total isolation to take the direction of a rising up-tempo, the sizzling specters are coming back to swaddle its beatings, in fact it looks like they beat on the same pace. They are also back for these glaucous pulsations that flounder always in clouds of radioactivity but also in beautiful floating synth pads. True that the ears must get used, except that I had indeed stipulate that FRIGMENTS-FRAGMENTS was a bold sound experience. And it's even more true with the very intro-spherical-sound intro of Quoi et Moi. The machinery of synths snores to lose sleep while fragments of rhythm monitor a resistance movement that increases in amplitude. The synth lines lament and pierce the wall of buzzing, parachuting the awakening of these rhythms to a lower level. But persistence there is! The rhythm is characterized by systemic pulsations that finally emerge from the corridors of nothingness. Ambient, it dances with the ghosts of the buzzing. The whole thing could annoy the neighbors. Percussions slam. The sequences pulsate and excite chloroformed layers while the rhythm, rather ambient, persists with shadows full of white noises, resonances and distortions that can seduce as much as lower the volume. And this will be the perpetual fight of the listener facing the taming of this album. BySenses offers some very nice ideas that are engulfed in clouds of distortions.
Where-ever However proposes a good ambiocosmic structure where the iconoclastic noises eat all the serenity, but our ears overflow of curiosity. Beautiful Moments moves a little out from this storm of static noises with a very beautiful ambient melody which gives the taste to hear more of it. And If you Are gives reason to our stubbornness because it's a beautiful moment of hollow vibe, less aggressive, with good orchestrations and nice layers of voices which give a little of energy to a rhythm all shy to pound in a so enveloping setting. Written for his unborn child, Slaap Stil Mijn Kind is a fascinating lullaby which turns into a good down-tempo where the crystalline arpeggios clink and quaver in beatings filled of white noises. The play of percussions and the echoing hoops which open the very catchy Strawberries 4-Ever, we really feel the influences of Vangelis here, doesn't let presage at any moment that we are going to move on a good up-tempo oiled in a strange translucent tone. This is totally at the antipode of what BySenses offers in its first 66 minutes. It's good IDM, rather melodious by the way, which seems to be inspired by Jean Michel Jarre's dance music. The sirens of warning which roar over OGF, for Operation Herdsman Falcon, depict the moods of life that Didier Dewachtere has spent in Afghanistan. Still there it's a strong up-tempo nibbled by stroboscopic lines which go and come in a din of percussions. And, for once, the noises of the dissonance are totally flooded by a sustained rhythm which scatters its membranes in order to diversify its charms.
I got to say that FRIGMENTS-FRAGMENTS is not really for all ears. We have to work hard to find its objects of seductions there. And there are! There are a lot to tell the truth. Behind this din, which orchestrates a rather well polished album, is hiding small jewels which are worth the whims of our ears. In small doses, little by little, this first album of BySenseswill convince you that the psybient style has really took root in the ambient Berlin School style.
Sylvain Lupari (December 4th, 2014) ***½**
Available at BySenses Bandcamp