“This album has all the attributes of an ambient music for an intimate outing in a cemetery and of its legends of resurrection of its inhabitants without life”
1 Opening Argument 2:27 2 Mutatis Mutandis 2:57 3 Damnum Fatale 4:14 4 Obscure Statement 2:18 5 Nolo Contendere 2:37 6 Res Judicata 2:05 7 Res Gestae 19:48 8 Ultra Vires 3:03 Caustic Reverie Music
(DDL 39:29) (VF) (Dark & Industrial Ambient Music)
Built on 7 little titles and a very long, ULTRA VIRES has all the attributes of an album of music ambiences for an intimate outing in a cemetery and its legends of resurrection of its inhabitants without life. And as the information say about it at its release, it's an album where the elements were treated on tape recording, remodeled and finally tortured (sic!) in order to give new forms and, especially, new sound textures. In the chronology of works for cinema-in-your-head from Caustic Reverie, ULTRA VIRES is the companion of Inadmissible Evidence which was released in 2008. It's an album very difficult to tame because it is noisier than musical with a flock of musical tones and sound samplings deconstructed which have been reshaped to create a climate where fright meets a serenity won with strike of chills. If Opening Argument infiltrates our ears gently, Mutatis Mutandis goes in the opposite direction with all the depth of its meaning. This is industrial ambient with synth waves which spit metal when they collide. Damnum Fatale cogitates between the two genres before fleeing with a surge of cavernous breezes. Obscure Statement is a long wind inhabited by sound mutations and some long wiishh, while Nolo Contendere takes up the industrial theme of Mutatis Mutandis with sharper squeals. Res Judicata is the most acidic title of this music collection of ambiences not to play to meditate or to fall asleep. Res Gestae is a long journey in sounds in a tunnel where the ambient air and its elements form a long meditative lament rather relaxing. If its intro is cracked by an approach of industrial ambient, the rest is a nice moment of relaxation with a concerto of hot breezes pushed by the perfections of the walls of this underground cavity whose exit ended to an oasis of serenity. It's a good moment of this album where we jump again with the introduction of its title-track. And even if the last seconds of Ultra Vires are rather relaxing, our nerves, becoming again sharped, remain too tense to appreciate the warm whispers that have left us perplexed throughout ULTRA VIRES. An album of ambient moves not made to make us sleep!
Sylvain Lupari (June 26th, 2018) ***** SynthSequences.com Available on Caustic Reverie Bandcamp