“When the Earth is Far Away is an album where the astral and earth elements communicate in an enchantress seraphic symbiosis”
1 When the Earth is Far Away 5:09 2 Timelessness 16:45 3 Strange Storms 4:43 4 Blue Distance 12:16 5 Dream Travel 6:51 6 Terraforming 18:01 Spotted Peccary | LSM26
(CD/DDL 63:45) (V.F.)
(Ambient Music)
Imagine a place where one could commune with ourselves in total harmony with the tranquility of vast harmonious spaces. A unique place where as soon as we put the ears, a torrent of serenity is toppling over our worries and calms our fears. A concert for Aeolus and his henchmen, WHEN THE EARTH IS FAR AWAY travels on the wings of the contemplativity with celestial eddies which perturb the fluids of our shady feelings. This 2nd collaboration Padilla/Zero Ohms (the 1st one being Path of Least Resistance in 2005) is of a dreamlike sweetness to cut any links with what surrounds us. It's a wonderful ode to tranquility where the ambiences tetanized by an angelic sweetness are transporting the listener in spaces still virgin. There where the sea kisses the sky and where the space watches over our fate.
Breezes coming from distant horizons are blowing on the soft reflections of a water charmed by so much sweetness of trade winds. The magic of Zero Ohms (Richard Robert) operates from the opening of the title-track. The child of Aeolus distributes the gifts of his spiritual father with a range of winds' instruments which blow from all directions, caressing the delicate and discreet lines of Craig Padilla morphic synth. The ambience is of ether. A soft sleep-inducing and contemplative sensation transports us up to the doors of abandonment with those angelic breezes which embrace the cosmic phases in order to lead us towards the edge of Timelessness. This long title may be of a surprising passivity that we are seduced by its iridescent breezes which sometimes borrow intonations of voices or breaths of lost souls, barely touching the delicate carillons which ring and sing of their honeyed tones the delights of a universe of peace of mind. An immense sensation of serenity wraps us with these synth lines of which the celestial singings espouse the curves of the so many Zero Ohms' mistral flutes. The union is as much seraphic as cosmic. And in spite of the movements' tranquility we feel the influence of these astral waves which roam in space, waiting for the slightest mislaid movement or breeze to hook on it a mirror of which the reflections are sparkling in a lost universe. And the winds (From Aeolus or Poseidon?) reason the disillusionment, increasing their passive strengths to draw the windy odes of Strange Storms which ululates like deaf singing their worships in a desert without drought.
And quietly this mesmerizing mistral ballet transports itself up until Blue Distance and its voices which cradle the tranquility of sea waves which roll in a celestial ocean. We are between Michael Stearns' M'Ocean and Chronos with these astral singings floating around some delicate violins and fluty lines. The emotions run on our skin. And the senses in rest, we glide with this marvel of cerebral delicacy. The singings of Zero Ohms' flutes pierce the silence of the zodiacal movements, while that soft reverberations glide on the comfort of a stellar Serengeti. The first turbulences of WHEN THE EARTH IS FAR AWAY are showing at the mouth of Dream Travel. They are some fluty breezes which run on their harmonies, creating a fascinating eddy of airstreams which undulate like clouds pushed by winds. This series of timeless loops merge in a passive rhythm where the tranquility ties us to silence while pops up a concert of flutes with piercing tones, meaning the end of Dream Travel which quietly pours its stream of lyrical spasms towards Terraforming. The blue spaces are melting into a thin earthly horizon where the breezes of oneiric flutes and the singings of a passive synth are crossing of Steve Roach's arid territories. The intro, misty and ethereal, borrows the air corridors of Blue Distance. And it's of a meditative approach to cut us from the rest of the world, especially when our ears are wrapped with a pair of earphones. Still there, the links with Michael Stearns are intimately presents, especially when that a rivulet of sequenced pearls are shaking the reflections of a latent crystalline rhythm at around the 10th minute. These sequences get into a panic under the cover of the tranquility without trying to escape. It's only 3 minutes later that their muffled frenzied beatings give birth to a spiral rhythm which climbs a short astral stair, driving the listener towards the soft waves and the light lapping of water which seeks for the comfort of Zero Ohms' breezes.
Caressed by the influences of a musical world which drinks of oceans and feeds of cosmic sighs, WHEN THE EARTH IS FAR AWAY is an album where the astral and earth elements communicate in an enchantress seraphic symbiosis. And like sea terns, we can only contemplate the captivating serenity that gets free of this album where the delicacy of its oneiric structures enchants with multiple lines of an incredible sensibility. It's very beautiful and it's also very quiet. And it's especially very musical and lyrical. It's like sleeping on a bed of clouds under the stars.
Sylvain Lupari (November 10th, 2012) *****
Available at Spotted Peccary Music