“This first opus from BySenses may needs a little bit of time but in the end, it will flow nicely between your ears”
1 Can you Tell Me Why 7:34
2 Just Missed the Nightboat 8:51
3 Georgina Ciotti 7:52
4 Synthetic Clouds 18:26
5 The Brain Labyrinth 4:06
(CD/DDL 46:49) (V.F.)
(Berlin School, Belgium vibes)
Didier Dewachtere is a very talented artist. A creative artist who knows how to set the music the pictures he has in mind. Released in 2014,
INSENSE is a little gem which went under the radars. For this first album, BySenses evolves on the wings of the Berlin School while infusing this little ambient psychedelic side which has become the mark of a Belgian School which now preaches its own identity. Between 2 too short phases of rhythms and long acts of misty ambiences, Can you Tell Me Why begins our journey to INSENSE with arpeggios tinkling in electronic mists. Nervous, they follow the echo of their jingles in a pattern too random to be minimalist, preferring to cling onto a line of bass sequences which offers a short approach of Berlin School. And as in the beginning, the chords tingle again without shadows of rhythms. One can imagine a sonic dialect for a deaf ear whereas the synth mist veil gets intensifying and whose emphasis in the effects throws an intense layer of Mellotron. The point of intensity reached, Can you Tell Me Why flees with a brief burst of oscillations from the sequencer and thereafter in a long uneasy silence. It's with a line of muffled bass sequences flowing with a soft fluidity that Just Missed the Nightboat scatters its chords of keyboard in a dichotomy which fades in an astonishing harmonious symbiosis. Sharper and more felted beats are pecking at a rhythm structure which relies more on the subdivision of chords than on a line of rhythm which is smothered in fascination. Georgina Ciotti is an essential title in the colorful universe of this album since it automatically captures our attention from the first listen. Its pace is like the approach of a drunken guy who staggers and seeks support to move forward. And its universe is made of sequences and percussive elements whose mesh is quite Berlin School and the harmonic portion is assumed by a keyboard which sings literally. Layers of ether and of astral voices cover this rhythm which reminds a little bit Revolutions from Jean-Michel Jarre. A very good track that leads us to the strange and more complex Synthetic Clouds.
This long sound journey is an odyssey of synthetic clouds, for the little that our imagination accepts the description of the title. Its first 4 minutes consist of an avalanche of layers and breezes from a synth full of metal granules. This big sonic sediment comes between our ears with a crescendo effect which reaches its culminating point with wide organ pads. Percussive and spasmodic elements come and go, amplifying a violent tonal eruption which comes through a series of these organ layers. A swarm of pulsations gets in and only one will survive this broth of white noises and of quiet crackles which irradiate only a few tones. Its continual leap structures a simple stoic beat with a seductive minimalist gradation in its tone. The last sizzling key, Synthetic Clouds continues its procession in these screeching ambiences sometimes loaded of noises where ambient elements and metal tones merge into a frightful chant of synthesized clouds. The Brain Labyrinth concludes this first BySenses album with a more serene texture and always a little convoluted. Its first part is woven into a structure of atmospheres with celestial voices which are surrounded by rumbling effects and by organic pulsations, as well as huge synth layers still mournful. Hushed explosions and various sources of beatings, of clatters and of stray noises end up forging a fascinating up-tempo texture which guides the voices and the moods onto a journey towards infinity.
Audacious and difficult to tame, this first opus of BySenses is a journey in the imagination of an artist who developed this curious taste for the unexpected, for sound textures that we try to assemble such as puzzles of sounds and tones. As is often the case, creativity and daring don't necessarily rhyme with harmonies, even more with a commercial approach. So, the envelope and the sound aesthetics of INSENSE require a greater passion for sounds and for the unexpected in the listener. And these criteria are essential if we want to be coaxed by this first album of Didier Dewachtere whereas the sound is still the key to sonic chapters here with tones which express themselves better by listening to them than by describing them. There are magical moments that we instinctively love in INSENSE and others that will sharpen this instinct as we discover it. Sylvain Lupari (August 19th, 2017) *****
Available at BySenses Bandcamp