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Writer's pictureSylvain Lupari

Cyclical Dreams: Dreams #2 (2021)

Updated: Sep 20, 2022

Nearly 3 hours of much diversified EM coming from 23 albums

(DDL 160:46) (V.F.)

Here is the second long awaited compilation of the Cyclical Dreams label. Dreams #1 was released at the very end of 2000 and proposed a collection of the first 15 album-downloads of the Argentine label. DREAMS #2 is much more ambitious by proposing not less than 23 tracks coming from as many albums for a grand total of 160 minutes of electronic music (EM) which represents in all honesty the different zones of this label for which the borders between styles are never a limit to creativity. And this last year of the Argentinean label was a very prolific one with 23 downloads and an emergence of new artists that are all interesting, depending on the style of EM sought. The Berlin School is certainly present, sometimes in a classical approach and often in a more progressive vision. The so-called abstract music has found a place in this label which also keeps its artists that are doing a very Dark Ambient style as well as cosmic rock. In short, a nice range of styles in a very honest selection which privileges as much the catchy tracks as the complex ones. The only drawbacks are the lack of vision in the order of the selected tracks and the absence of fade-in and fade-out, giving the impression of a compilation work done in a hurry, like when we used to make as teenagers with a home-made compilation on K7. Apart from these slight inconveniences, DREAMS #2 is worth all the money you'll spend for almost 3 hours of EM with a very nice artistic quality.

And it starts strong with an excellent track of Michael Brückner who offers us a very good evolving track of which the ambiences of the start turn into an Electronica zone after having offered a solid electronic rock. A great track from the album Recycled Life. Geradeaus bis zum Morgen is a track from MiDi BiTCH's album Transkosmos that I had lost from my auditory memory. A very good and catchy track that sounds very Jean-Michel Jarre with those rattling percussions. Excellent! Follows Sunrise in Huancar from the brilliant Sequence at the End of the World by Cartas de Japón. It's a dynamic track propelled by an excellent pairing between electronic percussions and a highly creative sequencer. Autumn Sun is also an introductory track, most of the titles in this compilation are, of one of the best albums in 2021, In Time of Lockdown by MindPhaser. ATMOS 1 makes us discover a more psybient universe of Ken Martin whereas The Interior Rhythms 1, reveals the one of Paul Ellis et Daryl Groetsch. That's from their eponymous album. We stay in the spheres of a universe flirting with an abstract progressive style with Time, or Tiempo, from Francisco Nicosia's album. Alex's eyes is the introductory track to the very solid Instructions for Building an Orange by Pabellón Sintético. For those who like Kraftwerk! Follow Me North belongs to Christian Fiesel's album of the same name. We are in the territories of Dark Ambient, just like with the dark Stop, they from For Why, album of Pagination. On the other hand, Undine, from Die Loreley by M3NASH, makes us think of a melancholic Vangelis.

Olvidar from ¿Dónde habitan los recuerdos? proposes a slow structure supported by a vampiric bass line where an organic and prismatic life gets organized. An excellent album by the way, that you have to take the time to tame, from the duo Tripaldi & Jimenez. We jump a little with the lively and driving rhythm of fugitive quandaries, a very aggressive track with interwoven movements of a sequencer in madness that we find in the universe of grüm~pé and his album A Strange Uncertain Light. Oceanides turns into a vaporous electronic rock in another excellent album of Cyclical Dreams, Oceanica by Sophos. The Rubicon Moment belongs to Beyond Our Galaxy's Triptych Phase whose Tangerine Dream flavors beckon you to one of the most accessible albums in the genre. Melodious and well structured on a sequencer in Berlin School mode. Incidental traction from Andèrs Klümppé is another good Berlin School without the TD influences and with a more cosmic texture. Song for David Lynch is one of the tracks whose sudden arrival, without fade-in effect, is a bit annoying. We jump from the Berliner style to dive into dark ambient on this track of Gustavo Jobim's first album on the Argentinian label Portal Between Two Worlds, realized recently. A gloomy track that could have been a good segment, along with Christian Fiesel, Pagination and Biología Marina de Horizonte de Sucesos and its industrial ambient universe that we find on Patagon Vol. 2. A nice surprise that this meeting with the very colorful universe of John Scott Shepherd with The Stroll II, an amazing Berlin School soaking in an alien atmosphere. And as I wrote, if I had an album to listen to while spying the sky at night, it would be this Realms Beyond. El abismo is a beautiful ballad from Velocidad Crucero's more complex album, Retorno a los Mares Inconclusos. It's a track as pining as its numerous synth solos that stimulates us to discover a universe where the Berlin School flirts with the experimental. What a beautiful ambient track impregnated with an incredible tenderness that this Changling2 of Latome2. It's followed by Inside the paradox from Hermeneutics, another album of sound panoramas sometimes ambient and sometimes animated with a light experimental aspect from El Principio of Noxa. DREAMS #2 ends with a very refreshing track by Gustavo Valletto, Aves Migrando from his album Travesía which is the only one I don't own in this successful 12 months of Cyclical Dreams download albums. A very playful track with a tasty tribal approach that turns into a Berber electronic rock. Interesting, like everything from this very good label that makes us hear a new kind of ME, Latin School, which is tasty... interesting!

Sylvain Lupari (January 20th, 2022) ***½**

Available at Cyclical Dreams Bandcamp

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