“Not great throughout but definitely very good, Lunaris imposes a more electronic and sibyllinne vision than on NIKO”
1 Lunaris Part 1 (8:19)
2 Lunaris Part 2 (7:29)
3 Lunaris Part 3 (9:06)
4 Lunaris Part 4 (9:55)
5 Lunaris Part 5 (8:22)
6 Lunaris Part 6 (5:08)
7 Lunaris Part 7 (6:37)
8 Lunaris Part 8 (3:46)
9 Lunaris Part 9 (5:47)
10 Lunaris Part 10 (7:51)
Groove (Available in August)
(CD/DDL 72:22) (V.F.)
(Berlin School, E-Rock)
A sound point, and a bass note falls. Its bouncing echo pushes waves, like the static ones, and propels the skipping rhythm of Lunaris Part 1 with its sequences as sober as the percussive clicks. These sequences sculpt a minimalist pattern that would climb this spiral staircase and its wide steps to infinity. A line of arpeggios emerges before the 2 minutes, sculpting a harmonic vision that sticks to this vertical ascent that percussions energize with a sober presence. Already, the arpeggios line flirts with our degree of emotionality when the synth intrudes. Soon after, Lunaris Part 1 plunges into an ambient sphere where the sequencer stays alive, just like the bassline. When the tsitt-tsitt clings to the tandem, already the rhythmic framework borrows a kind of ride in plains of ambiences where the synth freezes a good harmonious line whose more emotional axis screws this earworm which takes a completely different dimension when the guitar replaces the synth with incisive and piercing guitar solos. I am a big fan of Frank Dorittke! Well at ease in his comfort zone, he comes out of it only when he has clearly mastered his next stage of learning. What makes of him today a brilliant musician became as much at ease on a keyboard and a sequencer as with his guitar while having acquired a certain mastery with the electronic percussions. LUNARIS is his next album which should be released on Groove, Ron is currently mastering it, in next August. This latest album from FD Project offers 72 minutes of EM spread over 10 titles soberly titled Part 1 to Part 10. Each title is independent, but still offers this minimalist approach which serves as a basis for Frank D. to put his endless ideas into it.
A bluish haze and a seraphic goddess voice are at the origin of Lunaris Part 2. Electronic beeps and mist of metallic percussions dictate a slow rhythm and its independent bass line. Ambient, the circular movement picks up its sonic ideas while quietly the harvest of percussions sculpts a good astral down-tempo. The synth injects good arrangements on this cosmic slow ideal for dancing glued to your love one. Frank Dorittke has developed a very Pink Floyd progressive rock approach over the last few years, and it can be heard in Lunaris Part 3. This very good sensual cosmic blues is coated with a David Gilmour guitar whose solos float with a very Mike Oldfield vision whose Tubular Bells album has the most influenced FD Project in terms of musical orientation. This is a splendid cosmic blues like that of Lunaris Part 6 and its guitar screaming of beautiful solos on a rhythm sniffing a possible tangent for a morphic techno, behind a veil of bat's cries. Ahhh… Electronic Music! Lunaris Part 4 comes to us like a happy musical feast with its easygoing rhythm hopping in a sober harmonic rhythmic vision. Strange continuous squeaks, like a nightingale stuck in the interstices of the synth, stain a decor which gets enriched with tinkles and sequences to follow at the same speed as this rhythm sometimes gurgling but always fascinating, almost swagger. A rhythm that will change of skin, and speed, with a sequencer and a smoother flow after a brief ambient passage. There is a lot of Mike Oldfield here!
Lunaris Part 5 begins with this vision of the 70's disco. The pads fall with a resonance that binds them together, while nervous oscillations paw for energy as the beat lifts in a rock & dance fusion which all in all spins in an astonishing rhythmic lethargy. And when the percussions fall, it's rock constantly recalled to the scents of the Disco years with the sequencer trying to hold it back. But in the end, this rock serves the cause of good guitar solos. The rhythm evaporates in another of those ambient passages which cut the majority of LUNARIS' structures. A propitious moment for guitar solos that whirl like unclaimed sighs on heavy percussion, while Lunaris Part 5 still tries to escape for a Disco. Lunaris Part 7 follows the heavy cosmic blues of Part 6 to deliver a smooth spheroidal rhythm that spins around in a euphoric cosmic carousel. Lunaris Part 8 is a superb track with a guitar and its emotions in a context of extreme loneliness. A good title where I imagine Frank alone with the Moon on an evening of confinement. Lunaris Part 9 is a bit the opposite! It's a sort of nursery rhyme woven into sibylline ambiences and strummed by a keyboard more discreet than the guitar and played in a good circular electronic rock. Lunaris Part 10 closes this latest F.D. Project album with a sibylline opening where unknown calls are crossing a wall of chthonian voices. A delicate spiral follows the circular shape with sequences playing with tap dancing in a structure which becomes heavier and heavier, but not faster and faster. It remains a heavy and a little slow rhythm with a sibylline decor whose harmonious arpeggios do the sentimental work. The second half of the track lets hear a movement with an echo weaving a stroboscopic vision which ends in a good electronic rock with the rudimentary palettes of the Electronica style.
Not great throughout but definitely very good, LUNARIS imposes a more electronic vision than NIKO. FD Project is resolutely on a mission and combine his guitar with electronic rock filled with tender moments, which often give me shivers to the soul, like dark moments that remind me of the imperial side of the medieval. And as long as there are those moments, I believe Frank D. will always have these arguments that make of his music this thing we must hear ...
Sylvain Lupari (July 28th, 2020) *****
Available at Groove nl