“Visions is a great incursion in the whims of analog equipments which have weaved uncountable waking dreams”
1 Moonmusic 2 13:03 2 Mind Windings 11:46 3 Hallucinogenic 13:42 4 Discovery and Loss of Crystal Vision 23:51 ELMUCED MUSIC
(CD-R/DDL 62:22) (V.F.)
(Berlin & French Schools)
It's always a pleasure to have news from Eric G, even if they are old news. Like in Illusions, VISIONS comprises some old musical pieces written in the 80's. Musical structures improvised and immortalized on cassettes that the Swedish synthman has reworked and remixed in 2011, in the respect of his inspirations. Inspirations pulled from the vintages years of an EM sculptured by the analog equipment of key names such as Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre. These three names beautify the firmament of VISIONS which is a wonderful temporal footbridge between two universes separated by a digital vision.
Breezes of Orion blowing of a vertiginous swiftness open Moonmusic II. Lines of synth are floating around like ectoplasmic spectres roaming in search of a rhythm, of a melody. We are floating in a full weightlessness state à la Jean Michel Jarre before this morphic movement embraces a furious dance of oscillatory lines. A dance where the lines crisscross with increasing and decreasing cosmic movements that superb plaintive solos surround of a stunning perfume of the beautiful analog years of EM. With its muffled pulsations which shape a linear hypnotic movement, Moonmusic II embraces the reminiscences of Oxygene and Equinoxe with a clinch for the lost rhythms, like these trains which come to tickle the hearing towards 5:20, of Magnetic Fields. The title evolves by interphases and follows a tangent going to more ambient-cosmic moods with soloing breaths glancing through pulsations and drummed sequences. Those irregular beatings end a rhythmic structure fill by a convoluted intergalactic evolution. Mind Windings attacks straight away my ears with a bass line which forge fat quivering chords bouncing on the backs of percussions with heavy symmetric drums. The movement is of a hypnotic heaviness with these heavy pulsations which resound in my eardrums while that fine solos chiselled by some kind of Theremin aromas surround the minimalist hypnotic knocks. This fusion of bass/percussion transports synth solos and isolated pads in a cosmic broth which insufflates to this album its electronic ambience with mixed fragrances of Jarre, Schulze and Tangerine Dream (and even Michael Garrison), in particular with this combination of solos, cosmic effects and mellotron fog which coat a second quieter portion of Mind Windings.
After these two very lively cosmic incursions, VISIONS undertakes an ambient-spherical change of direction with Hallucinogenic and its heavy psychedelicosmic sound mass which widens a profound ectoplasmic ambience. Floating waves of a black organ are shaping a parapsychological intro where other waves more elusive are amplifying this dark approach which flirts with the fragrances of Klaus Schulze on Blackdance. And from everywhere are fleeing these astral serpentines which float on a structure in perdition and filled of melancholy. A somber nostalgia fed by floating and wandering synth pads and all of those analog cosmic effects that cemented our perception of a parallel universe when listening classical EM such as Blackdance, Body Love, Encore and Green Desert (or was it Atem?). The intro of Discovery and Loss of Crystal Vision breathes of these musical fragrances with long spectral veils which free slow vampiric waves. Segmented in several parts that eventually establish a coherent collage, this Eric G's epic track spreads out its mesmerizing musicality from a bass line which weaves its oblong rhythmic pulsating structure in the den of an organic cosmos where jingle of rattlers, rains of sound stars and foggy choruses are caressed by tortuous synth lines and dark organ layers. Quietly we pass in a more animated stage with colorful pulsations which pound in the shade of more philharmonic synth layers. Always soaked in a strong cosmic broth, Discovery and Loss of Crystal Vision elaborates the main lines of a pulsatory rhythm which resounds beneath wonderful twisted solos which are spinning in mists of ether. Synths and a guitar are exchanging great solos with this musical scent of Ricochet and Encore under a brook of sequenced keys pounding in all directions. Indomitable, the rhythm is feed of lost sequences and steady percussions which sparkle and strike beneath a superb duel synth/guitar of which the solos accompany a cosmic ride decorated by rains of sound stars. It's very good, as all of VISIONS which continuous exactly where Illusions has stopped. It's a great incursion in the whims of analog equipment and sounds which have weaved uncountable waking dreams. It's a declaration of love for an art which scatters its classics on timeless roads.
Sylvain Lupari (November 27th, 2012) ****½*
Available at Eric G. Bandcamp