“People is a very beautiful and poetic album of BySenses which continues where Frigments-fragments had stopped, but with a dose of new boldness in more”
CD1 (72:58) 1 Intro 3:28 2 People 19:13 3 Sensitivity 19:26 4 Before Birth 7:49 5 Short Memo 3:06 6 Nightdancer 6:53 7 Why Hurry@Midnight 6:41 8 Whispering 3:58 9 Nobody's Name Ends 2:20
CD2 (43:13) 10 People (Guy TALLO Mix) 5:35 11 Before Birth
(Extended Version) 13:55
12 Long Memo 6:25 13 Live Post X Sessions 7:46 14 The Messias 9:30
(CD/DDL 116:10) (V.F.)
(EM without borders)
Less than 4 years after the fascinating Frigments-Fragments, BySenses goes again with an album as much puzzling where the surprises, good or bad, follow one another in a sonic décor simply outside of some hearing tolerances. Because, and as was Frigments-Fragments, PEOPLE is an audacious album. Less psychedelic in its effects but not in its vision, I would even say daring with a superb way of cajoling the senses and the ears by its structures in movement where the snake bites itself the tail and others which have this stability of the good hymns of sequenced rock a la German sauce. This album, a very intimist one from Didier Dewachtere, turns around his reflections and around his inner emotions that the Belgian musician has lived and situations where he won during his last 4 years. For this album, Didier Dewachtere carried his music towards true voices which adjust their timbres to the curves of the moods and of the passages, so giving a new dimension to BySenses' arc of creativity.
And that begins with the rumblings of machines and the noises of metal which we murder, before a layer of ethereal voices calms down the temporary anger of the short Intro. And the opposite occurs! While everything is serenity with a seraphic choir and strata of cinematographic violins, the finale stumbles towards the cacophony of its introduction. These structures in continual struggling are the witnesses of an approach all in contrasts and all in conflictual of BySenses. The title-track drags us into the universe of boldness and of delights of PEOPLE. The music trades its minutes for phases of ambiences and of very Berlin School structures of rhythm and others which flirt with Byron Metcalf's shamanic illusions, otherwise of Steve Roach, but less frantic. Thomas Betsens recites a text on the importance of people and their silences which bring our society on the edge of the abyss. The word belongs to people and when people will speak … These texts were recorded on the music and it's with fascination that we follow a curve of repressed violence which is inspired by a music always on the edge of exploding without ever going there. A little as the accommodating silence of a society in lack of leaders. Does the voice disturb? We get use to it because of its symbiosis with the dramatic elements of the music which is perfectly balanced here. The timber goes from Timothy Leary to Wayne Hussey, the singer of The Mission, especially on the following track. Thus, we are in good company! Sensitivity is the survival to a love story and puts again the pasty and hallucinogenic voice of Thomas Betsens in a structure always divided between rhythms, which are less present here, and ambient vibes which are fed by the disharmonious elements of Intro. This long structure of 20 minutes scatters very well its sound effects, some are of an attractive organic tone, and the rise of its rhythms which are like an anger reasoned by invisible arms. The texts and the voice of Timothy Leary remain elements difficult to tame, except that they clearly give more depth to an ambivalent structure and to its phases of ambiences which are hard to the hearing by moments.
It's the very opposite with Before Birth whose phases of ambient elements quaver like these spasmodic whispers bound to the tribal universe of Byron Metcalf and of Steve Roach, in particular because of the presence of guttural hummings which seem to be taken from an effect of Didgeridoo. Written while he learnt that he was going to be a grandfather, the music here offers a good balance between the phases of ambiences decorated of sonic honey and these bits of evanescent rhythms which come and disappear in the oral caresses, and at times very childish, of Greet Laebens. Before Birth (Extended Version) just brings additional minutes to the counter and they are concentrated on the forms of rhythm in this title which benefits of a very nice tone at the level of synths. We pass at another level with the heavy, muffled and jerky rhythm of Short Memo which is a pure retro Berlin School. The movement reminds to me of the impetuous and delicious Overture by Christian Richet whom we find on his album The First which was released in 1989. Its older brother of tones, Long Memo is very welcome in my ears. Nightdancer is too by the way, and its heavy and lively rhythm which breaks the house down, in particular thanks to Frakke on drums, runs beneath some superb synth solos with forms and with astronomical colors. The music and the moods of Why Hurry@Midnight inhale the spirit of the title. A nice synth wave walks under the breezes of a magic night on which glitters the notes of a pensive piano. Whispering proposes a structure as ambivalent as on People and Sensitivity, while Nobody's Name End is a title of ambient vibes which rumble with furious elements in an intense approach which rises in crescendo. The CD2 offers small presents with titles which show a bigger length to the counter or new mixes, as People (Guy TALLO Mix) which turns into a title of dance music. I had some difficulties in assimilating well the magic of Live Post X Sessions where the voice of Thomas Betsens sounds as if it was coming from the entrails of the Earth with its lot of ambient vibes and elements which are not so too much far from this possibility. The difficulty becomes especially more marked when the effects of echo turn up between my ears. And when I have to close my eyes in hoping that it will end soon…This is the only small moment which is in conflict with my ears in this very beautiful and poetic album of BySenses which continues where Frigments-Fragments had stopped, but with a dose of boldness in more. PEOPLE is available in a CD manufactured version with an outstanding digipack 6 panels artwork and/or in DDL where a bonus track is waiting for you. Namely The Messias which is built upon an ambient beat and wrapped of a very angelic approach where a celestial choir and ethereal layers adorn the ringings of a melody which is dragging its soul in the steps of a new Messiah…For those who believe.
Sylvain Lupari (January 23rd, 2018) ****½*
Available at BySenses Bandcamp