CLAUDIO MERLINI: Enchantment (2012)
Updated: Jun 18, 2020
“Once again Claudio Merlini made a harmonious album which hooks our soul like our heart”
1 Desire 3:40
2 Portraits 3:51
3 A Quiet Place 4:44
4 Enchantment 5:20
5 Faventibus Ventis 5:15
6 In the Air 4:01
7 Frozen Light 5:20
8 Masquerade Girl 5:21
9 Inner Spirit 3:43
10 Float in the Dark 4:09
11 Magic Sleigh Ride 3:52
12 Karma 6:10
13 Book of Memories 4:05
14 The Tower 5:59
15 Enchantment Power Mix 5:32
16 Enchantment DW Summer Club Mix 7:30
(CD/DDL 70:38) (V.F.)
(New Age)
After a second album where the rhythms got intertwined into musical embraces with scents of Le Parc by Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre's Metamorphoses and movie ambiences from Vangelis, Claudio Merlini comes back with a second album on AD Music label and its New Age division. Closer of the New Age and Easy Listening borders than of contemporary electronic based sequence music, ENCHANTMENT proposes 14 titles which flow with more sweetness and romantism than with The Colours of Music where the always soft rhythms were merge with nice melodies weaved in the sighs of Asia.
Spreading his romantic approach over recurring melodious themes, the Italian synthesist announces his colors from the start with Desire and its celestial choirs which introduce a slow lascivious rhythm. The percussions are bubbling in a static broth while chords with tones of guitars are forging a meditative melody which strolls in a musical pattern weaved in a tearing of Merlini's influences. Portraits follows closely with its percussions rolling which bring us towards a melodious approach where crystal clear arpeggios stream with a beautiful fluidity on a good nervous sequenced line. The approach is very near those of Tangerine Dream's melodies in the The Atomic Seasons with choirs and Mellotron violins which float above a musical structure filled by Asian flavors. With its silky flute on a rhythm which waddles innocently, A Quiet Place revisits the beautiful melodious approaches of The Colours of Music with fine percussions and chords of a romantic guitar. It's a soft melody with a dramatic crescendo endowed of a rich musicality where choirs, flutes, guitars and percussions embroider a rich musical setting. And this is one of the best things in Claudio Merlini's works. The title-track is a good example with its delicate shimmered arpeggios which awake singing winds. The intro is soft, and tribal percussions brighten a fragile rhythm. Angelic choirs and celestial violins are wrapping this paradisiacal rhythm which rolls like a ball of silk under the warm winds of the Mediterranean Sea before it’s torn between a soft orchestral violence and a dreamy melody, a little as all that