“Analog Overdose: The Ricochet Dream Edition is a musical feast, a heaven for all fan of analog psychedelic EM”
CD 1 (78:12)
1 Electronic Mirrors Chapters II-IV 28:10
(Live in Berlin Petrus-Kirche, 2002)
2 Encore 23:25 (Studio de Berlin, 2001)
3 Liquid Tape 6 2:51
(Live in Berlin Liquidrom, 2002)
4 Ems No.1 4:01 (Studio de Berlin, 2002)
5 Liquid Tape 3 (Sentimental Live Loops) 19:47
(Live in Berlin Liquidrom, 2002)
CD 2 (79:05)
6 Liquid Tape 4 (The Liquid Art) 8:56
(Live in Berlin Liquidrom, 2002)
7 Liquid Tape 5 16:27
(Live in Berlin Liquidrom, 2002)
8 10 P.M. At Bad Sulza 53:08
(Live in Bad Sulza, Toskana Therme, 2002)
(CD 157:17) (V.F.)
(Classical Berlin School)
Here is a special edition which slipped beneath many ears. ANALOG OVERDOSE: THE RICOCHET DREAM EDITION is astride the first 2 albums from Thomas Fanger and Mario Schönwälder, AO1 and AO2, with a mixture of music pieces played in concert and recorded during studio sessions, both in 2001 and 2002. The letter announces the colors of the messenger and the music of Fanger & Schönwälder is a real incursion in the analog spheres of the vintages years and answers very well to the precepts of the American label Ricochet Dream which concentrates on the dark and experimental electronic works. Albums which are inspired by Tangerine Dream's years of Rubycon and Phadrea; two great albums from a key band which is the main reason for the existence of Vic Reck's label. And this special edition of Analog Overdose presents us a darker and more progressive side of Fanger and Schönwälder with strong chthonian ambiences which float such as rustles from beyond the grave on intriguing and fascinating experimental approaches which if have the upper hand over the harmonies, lower the guarding in front of impetuous movements of sequences.
How the depths of an arid earth can embrace the cosmic corridors? It's the question that we ask ourselves by listening to Electronic Mirrors Chapters II-IV, played in Berlin Petrus-Kirche on February 2002, and Encore, recorded in studio in 2001. The intro is parasitized by felted explosions, by sulfur breaths, by shouting striations and by beeps of submarines' ballasts. In brief, a swarm of tones as eclectic as contradictory and as infernal which seem to extricate themselves from the depths of a universe in fusion. We are bathing into a chthonian ambience with dark choirs which hum in hollow winds while prismic tones and ambiguous Mellotron lines blow away and get lost in cosmic breezes. But most of all, we are deep in the purely ambient phases of Fanger and Schönwälder. And gradually the darkness gives way to an astral softness where blow and sing breaths of a dreamlike Mellotron which cross blue plains, where are hiding delicate arpeggios with which the impromptu melodies decorate a finale painted of its abstract stamp. Encore sticks as much to the finale, as at the structure of Electronic Mirrors Chapters II-IV, like a continuation of its Mephistophelian atmospheres. To say the least, its first 7 minutes. After? It's the black rhythm. A rhythm resounding of its rogue timbre, where hiccup some jumping keys of which their jerked kicks oscillate into the philharmonic melodies of the synths. Melodies which roar such as rebellious winds on a rhythmic skeleton sustained of its stubborn ions. These ions force the rhythm to pound ferociously for about ten minutes under a stream of synth layers and Mellotron breaths which exchange their harmonies, black choirs and iridescent mists up until the lessening of the skeleton of which the intensity is kept silent beneath a cacophonous concert of flutes and clarions which are very near the ambient spheres of Force Majeure. Liquid Tape 6 and Ems No.1 are two ambiospherical and experimental tracks while that Liquid Tape 3 (Sentimental Live Loops) spreads the first real harmonies of ANALOG OVERDOSE: THE RICOCHET DREAM EDITION with a more cosmic version, a more lengthened one, of the wonderful Sentimental Moods from AO1, played in Berlin's Liquidrom in 2002. Splendidly delicious, we bath at full depth in Klaus Schulze's analog ambiences.
CD2 dips us back into the psychedelicosmic atmospheres of the first CD with Liquid Tape 4 (The Liquid Art) and Liquid Tape 5, both recorded during this Liquidrom concert. If the 1st part is purely of ambiences, with musical prisms which ring and spin in countercurrents and eddies of spheroidal winds as dark as the abstruse choruses, the 2nd part offers a delicious structure of cosmic rhythm. The sequencer frees keys which drum a fine rhythmic approach where the rhythm is enslaved as much as the gurglings of synths are by a strong interstellar atmosphere. We certainly hear wilder keys grumbling and to erode the line of the rhythm, except that the filet is as much hard as a lead thread and it maintains this phase of morphic rhythm in balance with its cosmic environment fed by synth lines of which the formless tones don't even make shade to the celestial choruses. This is a very good psybient mid-tempo. Recorded during the famous concert at the Toskana Therme of Bad Sulza, in Germany, 10 P.M. At Bad Sulza is the cornerstone of this special edition of Ricochet Dream. Morphic, the intro spreads its vampiric veils over the first 4 minutes before our ears get acquainted with the keys which are jumping into the shade of their predecessors. The rhythm becomes strong with this handle of keys smiths of minimalist rhythms which skip with stubbornness on a slim rhythmic plan which allows no overflowing. And synth lines, more vaporous than harmonious, cover this rhythm at the same time as sober percussions harpoon it, aligning 10 P.M. At Bad Sulza towards a linear rhythm darkened by obscure choirs. Lines of flutes encircle the lineal movement, infusing forms of indistinct solos which sing over a rhythmic greyness. The sequencer comes as additional help and frees other keys of which the criss-crossed jumps break the grey dullness of a Teutonic rhythm which oscillates now of an adjoining rhythmic plan before being gulped down by the patience of synths at around the 24th minute. And it's an ambiospherical waltz which catches our attention for the next 12 minutes before the rhythm is reborn. Stronger and more musical, it skips and cavorts fervently under the breezes of synth of which the apathetic approaches eventually tame the liveliness at about the 45th minute, bringing 10 P.M. At Bad Sulza into the cosy night-whims of Morpheus. Quite a finale for an album which is truly the sonic paradise for every fan of analog EM.
Sylvain Lupari (August 14th, 2013) *****