“Beyond the Aurora follows the bend of Abstract Dimensions and without really knowing why we fall under its charms”
1 Rolling Towards the Aurora 10:17 2 At the Gate of Nacreous 14:58 3 Midnight Undulation 6:12 4 Night Shining 9:40 5 Iridescence 9:46 6 Closing on a Night Sky Light 7:03 SynGate - CD-r CR02
(CD-r/DDL 57:56) (V.F) (New Berlin School)
They are floating! Layers of synth to the colors of serenity float between our ears, evoking at times a harmonious speech and introducing especially this other one very good album from Colin Rayment. Rolling Towards the Aurora spreads its sweetness with sighs of Mellotron which wake slowly a line of bass sequences a little after the point of 3 minutes. The rhythm becomes then pulsatory. The sequences jump up with spirit, throwing copies with a more crystal clear tone. They draw a line of spasmodic rhythm which waves with tranquility in these layers misted by Mellotron where angelic voices get loose to give a more poignant dimension at this track dedicated to the memory of Edgar Froese. Soft, the rhythm derives like the keen beatings of wings of a sparrow sucked up by the storm of winds. Winding between the gusts of winds it rises and falls with nuances in the tone whereas tears of a six-strings throw a ghost aura. Colin Rayment's sixth album, his 2nd on SynGate, BEYOND THE AURORA draws its primary inspiration from the skyscapes of the North of the Scotland where are forming and travelling some impressive banks of clouds. And if Rolling Towards the Aurora is dedicated to Edgar Froese, BEYOND THE AURORA follows the bend of Abstract Dimensions by being strongly inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream, from the Jive years to the Eastgate ones.
Big layers of organ announce the arrival of At the Gate of Nacreous. Dark, the introduction shakes its atmospheres with a line of sequences which makes its keys oscillate in a still phase. These keys multiply with nuances in tones and colors, stamping or waving under these tearful layers which little by little take a harmonious and ambient tangent of the Atomic Seasons series. The rhythm and its ambiences crash on a cliff, crumbling the whole in a psychotronic phase before taking back its shape with a more lively and always static approach where sequences with organic tints and ethereal voices add an interesting coating to the progression of At the Gate of Nacreous. A light tick-tock can be heard around the 8th minute, announcing the 2nd ambiospherical phase. Using brilliantly his 15 minutes, Colin Rayment modulates At the Gate of Nacreous in 3 phases with movements of lively rhythm which are stigmatized in a static state and which are similar to Rolling Towards the Aurora, if not to the Sonic Poem Series of Edgar Froese's sonic vessel. One of the elements which makes the charms of BEYOND THE AURORA is this very melancholic shroud which encircles the rhythms and wrap up the ambiences. A little as if Scotland was suffocated by cumulus of grey clouds. And Midnight Undulation makes nothing to make me lie with its line of bass sequences which embroiders a wave-like structure where skips a thick cloud of crystal clear sequences without really of rhythmic direction. The ambiences, as well as the voices which blow on the finale, inhale unmistakably the inspirations which besiege the compositions of Colin Rayment. These seraphic voices accompany the slow progression of Night Shining where a piano and a line of bass get together for a somber march beneath the catacombs of black nimbus. The piano hammers our eardrums of a melody soaked of with nostalgia with notes which resound in a dense veil of dark tranquility. The effect is rather striking. The funeral march intensifies its pace just enough to pursue this story of charm with the very romantic approach of Night Shining. The fluty synth, and its ethereal harmonies, as well as the sequences which stir as a thick cloud of a thousand bubbles in a pond of magma are also elements of charm, as here as everywhere through the 58 minutes of BEYOND THE AURORA. Iridescence is the most joyful title of this last opus of the English synth man. Even if we are very far from electronic rock, the structure reminds me the undulatory fluidity of the Loch Ness Monster. Once again, Colin Rayment enjoys fooling our sense of hearing by bringing subtle nuances to his structure. One imagines clouds? Not really, unless having this kind of imagination stimulated by forbidden medicines, except that the music is very good even in its homogeneous approach, in particular at the level of the structures of sequenced rhythms. Closing on a Night Sky Light concludes BEYOND THE AURORA with a very realistic introduction of an evening under the Perseids in Amerindian land. After these 2 minutes of surrealist atmospheres, the music goes slowly to a march which adopts the tick-tock of time. These tick-tock get emancipated in order to offer a rhythm which sparkles like broth on the harmonies of a fascinating ballad that we absolutely want to re-hear. Layers and effects of voices which agglutinate add a perfume of esotericism to a title, and to an album, which we find very attractive without really understand why. So much that this Colin Rayment's BEYOND THE AURORA has landed in the category of my very favorite albums in 2016. Sylvain Lupari (August 12th, 2016) *****
Available at SynGate's Bandcamp