“A great soundtrack fill by a sweet poetic, and cosmic should I add, approach that will haunt you for many hours to come”
Herrscher im Orbit Part I 7:44 Herrscher im Orbit Part II 2:48 Herrscher im Orbit Part III 7:22 Herrscher im Orbit Part IV 3:14 Herrscher im Orbit Part V 7:11 Herrscher im Orbit Part VI 4:01 Herrscher im Orbit Part VII 8:48 Herrscher im Orbit Part VIII 9:50 Herrscher im Orbit Part IX 9:52 Herrscher im Orbit Part X 8:34 SynGate | CD-r EM07
(CD-r 69:24) (V.F.) (Cosmic & Berlin School)
There are things that we just cannot explain. Things which at first sight seem devoid of senses and which quite slowly obsess them. The last time that I heard the music of Ebia goes back to Hunter of Worlds. I had found the music good. A good mixture of everything where Jörg Bialinska has never aimed one genre in particular, if not a kind of spacey techno. It's a bit different this time with HERRSCHER IM ORBIT. This time the genre embraces downright the Software's beautiful years of New Berlin School. Except that the music has the appearances a bit muddled. All of this last album of Ebia rests on hesitating structures where the ambient rhythms are doing stop'n'go, shaking serpentines of finely dislocated melodies in structures of rhythms which seem always unfinished and which quite slowly coil up between the ears by taking the care of forming some fine and silky earworms. Everything you need to become infatuated with. All which has of more voracious! And if I had a link to make, that would be with the quite delicious and tenderly poetic Sebastian im Traum from Frank Specht.
NASA voices making the countdown are propelling the first measures of HERRSCHER IM ORBIT in the shells of our earphones. The skeleton of the ambient rhythms spreads its charms with volatile swirling sequences of which the resounding chirpings live with the pulsations of a hesitating bass line. Although threatening, this structure of unstable rhythm flickers beneath the jingles of crystal elytrons and the more steady pulsations of a bass-drum and of its bang-bang which brush the sweet hammerings of a cosmic techno. A quiet, almost soporific, techno which beats beneath dense layers from a morphic synth. The sensation of floating between two worlds assails our senses while that quite slowly the lunar rhythm of Herrscher im Orbit Part I crosses the corridors of ambiences perfumed by synth streaks and of which their gaudy colours and the restful shrill singings are floating just like the sweet caresses of Morpheus. We feel for sure a rhythmic fury pointing out on all horizons. And if this rhythm pierces a little bit this interstellar fog, it's to let escape a structure more harmonious than killer which always wraps itself of these soft aromas; as cosmic than paradisiacal. Ambient and very cosmic, with its lunar choruses which put down a shroud of serenity, Herrscher im Orbit Part II drifts quite slowly towards the first jewel, the first track that really starts this surprising passion for this absolutely abstract work; Herrscher im Orbit Part III. I spoke to you about ambiguous rhythm? About ambient rhythm which refuses to rock down the house? Well, it's all the charm of Herrscher im Orbit Part III that will shake its obsessing earworm until the last second of HERRSCHER IM ORBIT. The delicate knocks of astral tones' anvils at the end of Part II are ringing up to its intro which reveals a superb line of sequences with keys jumping on-the-spot. Percussions hammer a rhythm as sweet as slow while that another line of sequences deploys its keys which hiccup in a coquettish stroboscopic filet. And there, there are synth tears. Tears which sing sinister verses soaked of melancholy and which, without any warning, find a way through the ears for many hours later. While our feelings are hypersensitive, an unexpected dreamy piano throws some morphic notes in the air which skip on an already very striking electronic hymn. And thus are going the next minutes of HERRSCHER IM ORBIT.
Using at fullness, and with good reason, the deeply moving soundtrack of Herrscher im Orbit Part III, weft Ebia forges the following parts by bringing to it just what it's necessary of modifications to avoid any kind of redundancy. Delicate and enigmatic, Herrscher im Orbit Part IV and Herrscher im Orbit Part V remind as much the Machiavellian bed songs of Mark Shreeve as the futuristic atmospheres of Software. And when the percussions fall, we follow the curve of their feelings. Very strong moments here! Herrscher im Orbit Part VI brings us a bit closer to the cosmic momentums of Jean Michel Jarre with a liquefying structure where are glittering some liquid stars. This more ambient movement serves the depth of Herrscher im Orbit Part VII and to its structure of rhythm traced on the skeleton of Part I. The solos change the pattern a bit with superb twists which coo in an intense spatial environment. Here as everywhere, a dreamy piano spreads melodic fragments with evanescent harmonies which melt easily in all the harmonious setting of HERRSCHER IM ORBIT. We never stop of being seduced. More ambient, although very shaken by strikes of percussions and very synchronized palpitations from a rather dark line of bass, Herrscher im Orbit Part VIII offers a clearly more sinister approach with roarings of synth which rage against the moon. A little bit long but we forgive this gap when Herrscher im Orbit Part IX falls in our ears with its furious cosmic electronic rock. We plunge literally in the years of a little more progressive synth-pop. Herrscher im Orbit Part X closes HERRSCHER IM ORBIT smoothly. The rhythm remains ambient and swirls at the whim of sequences which unfold a delicate lunar melody of which the bevy charms as much our ears as the sweet and very dreamy synth solos.
My love says that there is nothing more beautiful than preliminaries! I completely agree. And this last album of Ebia is a long process of preliminaries which once explode from time to time before reaching its rhythmic nirvana with Herrscher im Orbit Part IX. In fact, HERRSCHER IM ORBIT is simply charming. Jörg Bialinska depicts a cosmic story where every sonic inch is furnished with an electronic bouquet as much dreamy than melancholic. The very big strength of his last album is this sensation to always hear the same elements, the same tunes which, without being totally certain of it, run throughout its 70 minutes. And this is there that the seduction, that the dependence if I would dare to say, becomes an insidious object of worship and fascination. We listen again to a track, as another one, and we hear all these nuances which caress our carefreeness to let ourselves be dominated by an oniric beauty which breathes of an astounding lunar approach as much electronic as poetic. I was totally seduced (but I’m telling you; it needs 3 to 4 listenings) and still I am. A very beautiful work of Ebia!
Sylvain Lupari (August 18th, 2014) *****
Available at SynGate Bandcamp