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Writer's pictureSylvain Lupari

CODE INDIGO: In Concert (2006)

In Concert is a monument of progressive EM that will throw you on the ground or will transport you in the clouds but which at no moments will leave you of ice

CD 1 (74:47)

1 Prologue 2:59

2 Code 14 9:09

3 Autumn Fades 9:54

4Ten Degrees per Second 8:52 5 Stage Left? 1:30

6 24 am 6:00

7 Galileo 3:36

8 TimeCode 15:14

9 Stasis 5:57

10 Eden to Chaos 11:35

CD 2 (77:10)

1 Area 52 15:58

2 Risky Business 1:21

3 Entangled in C 12:00

4 Uforia1 5:28

5 Cultures 8:00

6 Culture Shift 9:21

7 Call of the Earth 7:38

8 Code 11 7:23

(CD 157:57) (V.F.)

(Progressive rock EM)

Going all over the live performances that Code Indigo gave between spring 2004 and 2006, among them two superb shows at the Leicester National Space Center in England and the prestigious E-Live Festival of Eindhoven in Holland, IN CONCERT is a wonderful audio document which addresses as much to the absolute fans of the mythical English group as those who didn't still have the chance to discover the group of David Wright and Robet Fox. Surfing mainly on the albums TimeCode (with 6 tracks) and Chill (4 tracks), IN CONCERT is a lively album where Code Indigo shows its influences which oscillate between Pink Floyd, for the psychedelic moods as well as the continual voices and murmurs, Mike Oldfield, for the melodious approaches of Songs From a Distant Earth and Enigma for its choruses floating in Gregorian spheres. And the sound quality is astonishing with this 24 Bits mastering which peels and filters all the sound ingredients which roam throughout the rhythms, ambiences and melodies of a live album which amazes as soon as we put our ears full in it. The result is an album amazing of freshness and accuracy, a little as if Code Indigo delivered a remix of his works with a velocity which sweeten the surface of the soul.

After an intro decorated by hollow winds, spectral hootings and sound effects of a universe which collapses under the weight of its industries, Andy Lobban's guitar charms our ears with its ethereal bouquet à la David Gilmour which cuts through the torments of a dark intro and guides us towards Code 14. And the magic Codes Indigo settles down for the next 155 minutes. With its heavy rhythm, which oscillates between its fluidity and its jerky circles, and harmonic, Code 14 depicts all the musical delight which hides behind the universe of sound whim of Code Indigo. The synths spread a musical arsenal, where the breaths of Ocarina raise iridescent particles, and is whistling among harmonious lines flutes and Gregorian voices, whereas the guitar spits powerful riffs and solos which tear a structure knocked out by the good percussions programmed by Dave Massey. Heavy and lively, we have difficulty in believing that Code 14 is mainly centred on an electronic pattern, and Andy Lobban has nothing to envy to the guitar play of Zlatko Perica. Autumn Fades, out of the last studio album Chill, follows. It's a slow, dark and little bluesy track which progresses with a heavy but evasive rhythm where guitars and synths cry in vocalized sails. Ten Degrees per Second, always out of Chill, plunges us into a universe of agony before running away with a light rhythm. The guitars are wonderful. They sing on a bed of attracting sound effects and arpeggios subtly brilliant where voices, diverse breaths and cradles of mist arouse the curiosity while calming the soul. The group interprets afterward the heart of TimeCode with 5 tracks which begin with the very melancholic 24 am and its lamentations of mourner trumpets of which the sad sighs float on beautiful chords of electric pianos. After an interlude, a bit dramatic with Galileo and its Mellotron wings, TimeCode assails our ears with its threatening ride which grows its intensity subtly under a spectral choir and streaks of guitar shouting in an ambience filled by mysticism. We swim into the full spheres of Enigma with this track torn between the rhythm of its harmony and its night-atmospheres.

Delicate, Stasis flows into our ears with the sweetness of its piano notes which are carried by clouds of ether and a seraphic voice. Eden to Chaos gets a hold on this concert with some infernal breaths and the melodic notes from an e-piano which try a breakthrough on a bed of seething pulsations. The intro becomes heavy and feverish, offering poetry and gravity in a very harmonious symbiosis where violins of Orion caress our hearing which stumbles on a guitar with incisive solos and unforgivable riffs. A little like on Code 14, Eden to Chaos is torn between its oneiric ambiences, its heavy rhythm and its seraphic harmonies with an edgy guitar, a bass as solid as powerful and a splendid combination of synths without forgetting the very beautiful Celtic voice of Louise Eggerton. And so is taking place a wonderful concert where Code Indigo attacks and charms our senses with a music as well lively as heart-rending where synths and guitars are in perpetual duels on a structure knit by heavy pulsations among which the wriggling and the indomitable oscillations marvellously fit to a play of percussions which is always in the tone. We are in the den of the electronic progressive rock with tracks as puzzling as Area 52, a novelty which was on the 2006 E-Live EP, the very heavy and sparkling Uforia, and its Arabian ethnic approach, as well as Cultures, the much Vangelis Culture Shift and Entangled in C (a great unedited track on this double live album) and finally the Dantesque Code 11.

As for me, having listened again this double live set this week-end, IN CONCERT is a monument of progressive EM. It's a solid concert that Code Indigo gives us. The England band knew how to link its moods and rhythms in a musical framework which takes on a whole new dimension with a judicious choice of titles. If it's an essential album for the fans of Code Indigo, it's just as much for the non-initiated ones who are going to have a great 160 minutes where the reminiscences of Pink Floyd abound in a musical universe which is nevertheless all of its opposite. Far from the tranquillity of the ambient passages of the Berlin School style, the music of Code Indigo is livened up by a soft creative madness which rocks between its soft atmospheric moments, its beautiful e-ballads as well as its passionately rebellious and aggressive touch which recalls the glorious years when the progressive and electronic music merged like the perfect union with a clearly more organized and melodious approach. This is a wonderful album that will rock you or will transport you in the clouds but which at no moments will leave you of ice.

Sylvain Lupari (March 31st, 2013) ****½*

Available at AD Music

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