“A mix of New Age, modern EM and Electronica, this Vol. 2 is yet another rendezvous with the world in constant motion of David Wright”
1 False Dawn 4:19
2 Sirens 3:12 3 Dreaming Desire 5:23 4 Remembering Where we Were 8:11 5 Point Two 4:37
6 Sign of Three 3:44 7 Where we are is Where we've Been 5:35 8 Animism 2:23 9 Ghost Dancer 6:35
10 Vision Quest 2:15 11 Return to the Plains 9:37
12 Earth and Sky 3:02
Bonus Tracks: 13 Call to Me 7:56 14 Walking with Ghosts, DJMass Chill Out Mix 5:39 ADMusic | AD 141 CD
(CD 72:26) (V.F.) (New Age, modern EM and Electronica)
It feels good to hear new music from David Wright. There were rumors! His health. The possible closure of his label AD Music. And especially this silence. But no! Everything seems to be fine. The proof? This last opus which is a logic continuity, announced during the launch of Beyond the Airwaves Vol. I. Constituted in 3 parts; Dreaming Desire - A Symphony For Synth & Voice, Return To The Plains - 2012 Concert Recording and the bonus section, BEYOND THE AIRWAVES Vol. 2 offers two structures knotted in slow evolutions which will reach their own zenith very separate for each one. Altogether, it's yet a beautiful album. A very musical one (are we surprised?) where the imprints of Carys and Robert Fox sign a very ethereal first part. Some will say a New Age part, and I must agree. While that Return To The Plains - 2012 Concert Recording is more in David Wright's tradition. But no matter the ways taken to solve BEYOND THE AIRWAVES Vol. 2, the perfumes of Walking with Ghosts are there extremely present. Which in the end sounds like some very good news.
That comes by far! That comes from a part of the country where the ether is the elixir of serenity. A long breeze full of sun spreads a soft dreamlike veil where a synth filled by scents of flute play harmonies of a Kitaro genre on a delicate bed of prisms to silvery reflections. The first bastion of this album goes by the very meditative introduction of False Dawn. Effects and electronic noises, as well as some elements of sound drama, are perturbing the serenity of the moment, introducing even a shape of rhythm which skips and will skip as the singings of a paradisiacal bird. An enthralling voice as much acuteness as spectral adds a phantasmagorical touch to the finale of False Dawn which little by little falls under the charms of a slow tempo, decorated by the suave voice of Carys which spreads its bewitchments over the line of bass sequences of which the slow pulse pounds delicately in a meshing of riffs and percussions which raise dusts of the light rhythm of Sirens. The electronic effects and the poignant orchestrations accentuate a filmic approach, even a dramatic one, with this slow rhythm which increases its heaviness in the moods of Dreaming Desire. Here also the voice of Carys and the orchestrations dominate a rhythm which aims to be a little more insistent without ever overflowing its delicate dreamlike envelope. We are in the field of quiet music. Remembering Where we Were leads us to the first pinnacle in this album with a delicately more insistent structure of rhythm. It's a nice morphic down-tempo with a zest of Electronica adorned of delicious synth solos of which the strident charms can confuse a listening which wonders if it's not the voice of Carys that we really hear. A guitar comes to decorate this seraphic duel which brings out some Dreaming Desire of its New Age envelope. This is a good track which grows finely in intensity and gets lost for a while in Point Two where the voice of Carys and these synth breezes which sing like astral mermaid are rolling over the ambiences of a very ambient tribal genre. In very well-kept arrangements which push a more lively structure, Sign of Three and Where we are is Where we've Been take back the role of Remembering Where we Were where the voice of Carys mixes its charms and introduces ambient/rhythm duels in luxurious orchestral arrangements. This sounds very Robert Fox at times.
Animism opens the more electronic part of BEYOND THE AIRWAVES Vol. 2 with a pattern of ambient rhythm which multiplies its disordered pulsations in the ringings of a rebel xylophone, electronic noises, foggy gases and synth pads waterlogged of apocalyptic rustles. If Dreaming Desire flirted with the ghosts of Walking with Ghosts, the harmonies and the very light rhythm of Ghost Dancer throws us downright there. Lee Morant's guitar is as good as the one of a fine bluesman, while the paradisiac rhythm awakens the souvenirs of a certain album in 2002. Vision Quest cuts out these ambiences quite abruptly with a surprising tribal ambient approach where shamanic murmurs and other ones closer to schizophrenia are melting to the beams of a sonic hoop and of its metallic glints which propagate until the introduction of Return to the Plains; the highpoint of this album. Under the bites of Lee Morant's six-strings, Return to the Plains gets transformed into a solid up-beat. A rhythm which gallops of its intertwined pulsations/sequences and which forges the limits of a heavy techno always decorated of these shamanic prayers which shout in splendid orchestrations. And the qualifier of splendid here is very weak. This sounds very Code Indigo. Earth and Sky takes us to the lands of melancholy where, always very bluesy, Lee Morant's guitar caresses our ears with the same poetry as Carys' voice. We are in the bonus tracks part with Call to Me; a piece of music written with Carys. It's a very deep relaxing Chill Out. Same goes with Walking with Ghosts which is a Chill Out Mix done by DJMass. Those are bonus tracks. Thus, it's to be taken or ignore. I took them. Listened and was pleased as it's still good material from David Wright. And this Carys...what a voice she has. But still there: voices are not my cup of tea.
In all honesty? I had to struggle hard to tie bonds with this BEYOND THE AIRWAVES Vol. 2. Mainly for the Dreaming Desire part. Little by little, David Wright goes away from this David Wright who has amazed by his musical esthetic. A signature which challenged the laws of modern EM of an England School style. But wasn't it always that? The man always avoided the etiquettes, being happy to do what he knows how to do best; offering a good melodious and dreamlike EM. Sometimes even a little bit progressive and audacious by flirting with the free style that is Electronica. And it's very exactly of what is made BEYOND THE AIRWAVES Vol. 2. If the extremely seraphic voice of Carys and Robert Fox's arrangements bring the Dreaming Desire segment near to New Age, it's done properly and never we fell it insipid. Even if sometimes orchestrations try to shake the sleepy tears of our soul. But Return to the Plains? WoW! This is 24 minutes of pure delight which gives us the taste to hear again what David Wright has more to offer.
Sylvain Lupari (May 16th, 2015) ***½**
Available at AD Music