“EILAND is a solid surprise which will enchant your ears if you accept to travel among its many styles embroidered of complex links”
1 Eden: Ohrwurm 15:25 2 Into the Realms of Bodhicitta 4:16 3 Beyond Mind and Matter:
A Spirit Odyssey 16:40 Wool-O-Disc | WED045
(CD/DDL 36:23) (V.F.) (Art for Ears, Ambient, Berlin School)
I repeated it often since a few months; if you are an EM fan which refuses any bordering attachment, the invasion of the Belgian EM will fill your ears with happiness. EILAND is a trio consisted of Marcus Scheibmaier, Steve Slingeneyer and Bruno Coussée. It's to the latter that the organizers of the Full Moon Healing event have turned in 2016 to create an opening number for the performances of Gigi Masin and Laraaji. Bassist and guitarist who also plays a variety of other instruments, including the Mellotron and other synthesizers, Coussée contacts Marcus Scheibmaier, who is also a synthesizer and sequencer programmer, and the percussionist Steve Slingeneyer. He explains his musical vision of composing a sonic tale about the universe. Visual arts artist Lies Dierckx embarks on the project. His fresh vision brings a new dimension to the Coussée project. This is how Eiland, the trio, was born. The four artists are working on the project that has fill the eyes and the ears of the spectators attending this Full Moon Healing. Given this success, the group decided to record the experience, both music and visual arts. This is how the album and the movie EILAND saw the light of day. It was not until nearly two years later that the music was taken by the Belgian label Wool-E Discs, which has become a breeding ground for local talent. The CD was released during a performance of the band at the famous B-Wave Festival of 2018. Festival which also included Pyramaxx, Erik Wollo and Michael Stearns. The show and the music were then dedicated to Patrick "Kosmos" Wille-De Wael. Audacious and constantly evolving in the different spheres of EM, the music of EILAND is sewn of complex links which makes it transit between good Berlin School, progressive rock ... very progressive, and drifting floating cosmic ambiences. Lapping of water and waves roll like thunders in heavy rain. A brighter ray coming from a synth, like a sunbeam which tries to awaken a sleeping Earth. Bird chirps and piano notes which clink and resonate in an organic ambience, much like the music which rock the images of a forest awakened in documentaries of the BBC. You can hear Tibetan percussions tingling with more precision as Eden: Ohrwurm takes shape. A bass sculpts an upward movement which breathes and expires in a minimalist pattern. These bass chords echo at times. They amplify the tightrope walk of a music of ambiences which receives its first musical rays from the synths. Under these sound caresses, the rhythm is fluid and catchy. Exploring the sonic travels of Pink Floyd's pre-Meddle years with guitar chords which scatter among the anesthetic synth layers. The music increases in velocity, reaching a more intense dimension towards a finale whose rumblings lead to the explosion, that made me jump, of the percussions which opens Into the Realms of Bodhicitta. A hoarse voice, which seems to hide behind a vocoder gnawed by radioactive resonances, recites an incantation that finds its fury in a musical intensity which gets more and more violent. Drums combine this intensity with arrangements of a synth whose sonic heresies flirt vigorously with the intonation of Coussée's voices. Spread out over 4 minutes! I found that annoying. In return, it is a very acceptable gateway for Beyond Mind and Matter: A Spirit Odyssey which is the highlight of this album. The sequencer and repetitive percussions loops pound on a mesmerizing rhythm which seduces even more with the reflections of oscillations which wave like waves in perpetual pulsations. This tide of oscillations is of an intensity which gives chills in the back. Percussions slam and the bass eats our emotions with a poise which directs the music towards a Funk and then a Jazz completely unreal. The synth multiplies its layers which are more harmonious here with an even more convincing sibylline vision. From Berlin School to Jazz, Beyond Mind and Matter: A Spirit Odyssey mixes the two genres perfectly up until the 10th minute when the cosmic elements attract the music towards an ambient area fed by musical, as well as mysterious, synth pads. One has this reflex to play again Beyond Mind and Matter: A Spirit Odyssey! And that's when we get became addicted to EILAND. A huge surprise that my eyes can not wait to meet! Sylvain Lupari (February 20th, 2019) *****
Available at Wool-E Discs' Bandcamp