“An album of improvised EM where scents of magic names are well-dressed by two master minds”
1 Female Figure 24:25
2 The Elephant 13:31
3 Mercury Man 4:50
4 Face on Mars 15:21
5 The Dragon 5:11
(CD 63:19) (V.F.)
(Improvised progressive EM)
When time gives him time, Remy likes to explore new horizons and the artists who are their craftsmen. We can think of My Breathe My Music, the musical resurrection of Space Art, Mäläskä in the very solid Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory, and finally this latest discovery which may interest several fans of old Berlin School. Däcker is a project by Dutch musician Peter Dekker who has been collecting EM instruments for over 15 years. He is part of this generation of artists who love to improvise their compositions. PAREIDOLIA, for pareidolia, is a phenomenon, visual or auditory, which makes it possible to identify a familiar shape in a landscape, a cloud and/or a stain, such as hearing familiar sounds in a noise or music. We can also associate the phenomenon in the lyrics of a song whose words we do not understand. And here, it applies very well to the music of Däcker where we have the impression of hearing Klaus Schulze and other famous artists in the music of PAREIDOLIA which was mostly improvised on a sunny Sunday in August 2018. Remy and the brilliant Wouter Bessels have completed the remnant ...
It is with the hatching of a reverberations' nest that Female Figure begins. Our ears over our eyes; we can imagine an abstract form taking a more tangible design. A shadow of the synth casts a veil that begins to vibrate, injecting that 70's tone when Klaus Schulze made his organ tremble. Sound curlers from those same years begin to dance, like the percussions that come and go as the bassline extends its implosive presence. The synth diffuses its first nasal airs with a scent of patchoulis in its swarm. Däcker collects the tones that charmed him in a slow opening that does honor to the pioneers of the yesteryear's EM. The bass line is detached to initiate a rhythm without beats where solos twirl with nailed-beak tones. She does quite a job directing this fluid rhythm in a dark sound mass where the breezes are humming. The movement is frantic but not jerky. It's the art of analog that drives the destinies of Female Figure from which a deformed figure is changing appearances but is keeping the same contours. The Elephant is a gem of the minimalist art. Its virginal melody is played in a xylophone's effect that a flute makes even more honeyed. The injection of the bass line, reverberating shadows and gas jets annihilate its first charms. The music gets more intense and especially darker. Synth pads are cut for a more jerky flow while the background continues to flow with the same fluidity. Moments of dramatic intensity move the music forward with emotions in a dark symphonic corridor that does very Klaus Schulze in his bend to digital. An excellent track giving thrills and carrying chirping synth solos! After the short and atmospherical Mercury Man, where the level of improvisation remains imprisoned in the strongholds of its time, Face on Mars falls with crash. Atmospheric elements are unleashed above a slightly orchestral veil which gradually climbs the ladder of this climatic drama with an organ layer infusing its presence with good implosive impulses. An ether oiled synth pad dances with the first elements of the sequencer in this album. The ambient meets its convulsive contrast. It makes me think a lot of Airsculpture with this ambient movement which wavers on its desire in a very atmospheric mood before concluding in a heavy and jerky England School fed by good synth solos. The base of The Dragon is a vibrating veil with synth tears moaning with those keyboard tears falling with Vangelis' influences. A good and tender way to conclude a first album by an artist who seems quite promising to me.
Usually, one spends money on an album of improvisations by an artist that we like and/or who has an interesting list of albums. Däcker does the opposite. And from what I read about him; this is his way of seeing things! I'm ok with that, especially since Remy, we hear a lot of his perfumes in PAREIDOLIA, and Wouter Bessels have put this delicious meat around the two frameworks that initially were the basis of this album. Let's say it helps to start a career…!
Sylvain Lupari (February 5th, 2021) ***½**
Available at Deserted Island Music