“Each time that I heard an album from DW I keep telling that it's his best. Connected is no different. It's really his best...until his next I guess!”
1 Elemente der Psychophysik 7:51
2 Constant Perceptions 6:37
3 Stimulous...Response 4:37
4 Sensory Perception 6:10
5 The Science of Consciousness 4:37
6 The Threshold of Perception 5:35
7 Sensory Overload 5:28
8 Into the Void 4:03
9 Confusing Ambiguity 5:06
10 Picture Thinkers 4:25
11 Signal Transduction 3:15
12 Connected 5:41
13 Social Contagion 5:51
14 Invisible Webs 4:53
(DDL/CD-R 75:15) (V.F.)
(England & Berlin Schools, Melodious, E-Rock)
I never grow tired of hearing the music of David Wright. With each new album and style, he imposes his very musical works with a stunning harmonious cohesion. For some, his music goes away from the Berlin School or England School territories with a more coherent structure which looks for more the harmonies than the confusion. Fans of EM may debate the point; but who says that beauty can have only one visage? CONNECTED travels melodiously in the furrows of In Search of Silence. David Wright creates the canvas of a wordless story where the listener is called to furnish his fantasies upon the precision of a musical soundscape where the slow crescendo is as much harmonious as emotional.
The first act here extends from Elemente der Psychophysik to Picture Thinkers with a rhythmic approach mainly driven by Constant Perceptions and that journeys between a soft techno and a down-tempo. The musicality emerges from a distant blade of synth which lays a musical aura to subtle philharmonic veils. The intro undulates of its synth layers which float and glide across an empty sky filled with clear cosmic tones of which the tranquility is briefly disturbed by an isolated kick. Our ears are caressed by the voice of a solitary ocarina that awaken an enchanting world swirling around pulsations and percussions which resound in space. These breaths awaken an enchanting world, while that hove muffled pulsations and percussions which resound in space. Their echoes eventually weave a mass of sequenced balls which pound with an increasing ardour, weaving the minimalist rhythmic structure that will shake the harmonious carpets of the album's first verse. The rhythm embraces a shy technoïd tangent, while that Constant Perceptions goes deep into our ears by a suave voice that flirts with a sense of desire. Such as a painter and his canvas, David Wright paints a fascinating picture with his synths. The evolution of a hypnotic rhythm with persistent pulsing keys under delicious and complex solos which weave their way over a structure underpinned by philharmonic veils that imply the essences of Oriental nights. This animated rhythm, halfway between a soft techno and a down-tempo, is the cornerstone of the prosaic cradles of CONNECTED's first chapter. It grows in subtlety on Sensory Perception before reaching its zenith on The Threshold of Perception. These three titles are connected by some quieter interludes, like on Stimulous... Response and its enchanting flute which sings on a bed of gentle pulsations and pads. A sparse rhythm switches shape into dazzling pulsations and crystalline beauty before charging into Sensory Perception then evolves into a denser orchestral structure underpinned by the chords of a fascinating sitar. The Science of Consciousness isolates itself on silvery sequences which swirl in felted ambiences, before being helped by a bass line and to beat towards The Threshold of Perception. Sensory Overload is a fine astral bed song that allows its chords to swirl into a fine timeless spiral. Other chords are grafting there. Shy, they roam and ring of a hesitating approach, hanging on onto of smooth celestial voices to gradually be absorbed by the silence of the celestial bodies. The fans of Vangelis will be on familiar ground here. Simply delicious from David Wright!
A delicate gong opens Into the Void which still retains the vestiges of Sensory Overload but which also signs the end of the Arabian fragrances from CONNECTED. The mood is rather of a soft cosmic tint with strata which us of times gone by. The synth layers merge their silvered tones with celestial choirs to gently embrace the scattered melodic tones which bind themselves to the gentle rhythm of Confusing Ambiguity. As the pulsations fall, so the remnants evolve into a rhythm which bends its harmonies under the oscillations of a good bass line and a rain of jumping ions, entailing in its chaotic rhythm the jingles of cymbals. It spreads into a wide rhythmic pattern that builds with a fusion of pulsations and palpitations, as Confusing Ambiguity shells its seconds. The percussions and funky chords bring us towards the heavy riffs of an electronic guitar which casts its resonant shadows on the intro of Picture Thinkers. The rhythm is heavy and slow. Like a monument of hypnosis, it flows lazily, drawing ample circular bows under the splendid solos of a synth which reminds us that this instrument is not only a smith of noises and atmospheres. The last chapter shows us how much David Wright roots the fact that he is doubtless the most beautiful feather for one to lay an EM which allies of impetuous movements of sequences pounding under superb melodious approaches. Electronic chirpings open Signal Transduction. From an Arabian world, we go to a futuristic universe à la Blade Runner with these so harmonious synths which outline some intense philharmonic veils. The impact combines the beauty and the drama in an ambience which displays all the influence of Vangelis over the English synthesist. We swim in full cosmos and we are feeling good. But the best is yet to come! Too often, the music of David Wright made my arms' hairs try to sting my heart. You know, these hairs which are directly connected to our emotional sensor? Well, he does it again. The way Connected strikes our brain is colossal. The rhythm is slow to start and it explodes through the barrier of the ambiences with heavy pulsations which beat among of more discreet percussions and rhythmic elements that sounds like an epic melancholy film finale. A beautiful melody with oriental flavor is nesting in the hollow of this heavy rhythm which pours into Social Contagion where choir and angelic synth lines get unite to draw the last drop of emotion from the stream of melodies in evidence throughout this David Wright's 24th opus. The synth solos lift the mood of a profound melancholy, rocking our repressed hopes towards the distant tranquility of Invisible Web which closes another David Wright's big work. This is great music which grabs us from the inside, haunting our ears always and always. But we are used to it. After all, it's not him who gave us the immortal Walking with Ghosts?
Sylvain Lupari (October 22nd, 2012) *****
Available at AD Music