“This album sails between cosmic music and some sequencer-based rhythms”
1 Space Time Continuum 15:45
2 Ghost in the Machine 12:09
3 Cryogenics 12:52
4 Footprints in the Sand 13:08
5 Fading Lights Grow Brighter 7:32
(CD/DDL 64:21) (V.F.)
(Progressive England School)
As a 5th opus, Create invites us to an in-between. To a clever mix between the cosmic vapors of Biospherical Imagery and the aggressiveness of Kindred Spirits. Not that SPACE TIME CONTINUUM has a violent temperament. It navigates between random and minimalism rhythms with hints of melancholy.
The title-track unveils a very spacey cosmic intro where a voice announces that, reluctantly, he cannot do this. The tone is what the waltzing images in my memory of Odyssey 2001 provoked; a kind of cosmic-dramatic fusion on calm, but arid ethereal winds. The slow orchestral movements sail on a melancholic sea. This is followed by a good synth line with rising reflections that cascade gently, maintaining this vision of a space drama. The rhythm is soft and spiraling, like an abstract journey in a synthesized sinuosity. Much like Tangerine Dream's Phaedra, a beautiful ghostly flute fills the void. It opens the passage to the pressed beats of the heavy percussions which adopt a minimalist carousel, filtering its melody through synths with piercing and penetrating solos. Ghost in the Machine also offers a cosmic opening with sound effects with twisted voice blasts, as if in a crumpling of emotions. The movement settles down with slowness, as if we were attending an interstellar ballet where the gravitational movements have a poetic tendency. Light percussions install a sober rhythmic march which is dressed of good and languorous solos and short lost melodies with pale tints.
The crystalline flutes of Cryogenics begin a structure which is parallel to Ghost in the Machine. A tasty intro that lives with a nervous and spasmodic sequenced beat around the 5th minute. The world of Create becomes more agitated and offers a dense and animated musical coloration. The mellotron layers dance on random sequencer phases structured on a steady rhythm, offering the best ingredients for a biting Create. Footprints in the Sand starts off quietly with an amber, fluty mellotron that navigates between the worlds of TD and Air Sculpture before offering an intense, insistent sequencer movement. The sound impulse is slow and supported by a heavy and spiral line of the sequencer that progresses on increasingly dense and rhythmic cylindrical tangents. An impressive musical journey that circulates through superb corridors of ghostly and orchestral synths. The connection between the nebulous waves of Phaedra and Force Majeure is unavoidable. It's, by far, the best track on SPACE TIME CONTINUUM. Fading Lights Ggrow Brighter ends this 2nd album of Create on Groove. Strongly atmospheric, the movements of the nebulosity are heavy and well felt on the uncertain rhythm of a space walk.
I like it when it rocks, I was well served with SPACE TIME CONTINUUM. This album navigates between cosmic atmospheric music and the spirited, yet quiet, rhythms of the sequencer.
Sylvain Lupari (October 2nd 2007) ***½**
Available at Groove nl