“T&Y represents the very parallel and sometimes opposites visions of FD Project”
Today
1 Stars and Sky 16:57
2 Planet Earth 7:38
3 Polarstern 8:43
4 Fearless 8:24
5 Remember 7:00
6 Dream with me 2:41
Yesterday
7 Dream in a Dream 5:02
8 Around the World 5:14
9 Waterfall 7:09
10 Early Years 4:46
11 Wishes 3:47
(DDL 77:42) (V.F.)
(Minimalist Berlin School)
T&Y is FD Project last album. An album divided in 2 parts; today with 6 new tracks and yesterday with 5 unreleased tracks that were written since 2003. If Heavensgate enveloped us with a very Berlin School aura, this last opus of Frank Dorittke takes us into a musical world dominated by the influence that Mike Oldfield had on the German multi-instrumentalist. An album with rhythms arranged by good sequences sometimes random, sometimes minimalistic, in languorous layers dominated by an electric guitar sometimes dreamy, sometimes explosive.
And it starts with Stars and Sky which opens like a new Tubular Bells. A dark linear opening tinged with fine sparse chords that undulate on barely perceptible oscillations from which emerges an innocent minimalist nursery rhyme played on the piano and coupled with the undulating bass line that animated Mike Oldfield's first version. Except that around the 5th minute, the rhythm changes end for end with the appearance of a violin playing over driving percussions, feeding a wild incursion into an Irish tribal vision. Stars and Sky becomes a folk dance for gnomes that softens into an obscure ambient phase. A phase streaked with lamentations of a six-strings and a mellotron voice that stretches over a melancholic piano. The movement comes back to life languidly with a heavy guitar leading the pace under an orchestral choir before transforming into another stroboscopic rhythm, depicting FD Project's fantasy and taste for changing rhythms that constantly confuse the listener. A good track that paves the way for a multitude of tracks with very different structures that respect the interchanging of rhythms in a dense and well nourished sound universe. Planet Earth offers a minimalist intro with Big Ben-like chords. An intro which palpitates softly on a line of the sequencer more and more jerky, but whose fury is held back by a mellotron cloud. The track bathes in a bubbling sounding stasis with thin crystalline sequences that are topped by heavy guitar solos.
Shimmering chords flutter around the dark line of Polarstern. Voice layers add an intriguing dimension to a rhythm that grows like a clock trying to anticipate its movement in an ambience veiled by mellotron layer and guitar solos that pirouette with passion. A track close to the Berlin School style as well as Fearless with its sequenced loops that flow in an ambient universe and this in spite of a feverish sequencer surrounding a line of pulsations that won't explode. Just the opposite of Remember with its jerky and circular rhythm swirling on an ascending sequencer movement that is triturated by heavy riffs and biting solos. After the gentle nursery rhyme of a chiseled guitar in Dream with Me, we get in the vaults of FD Project's early compositions that favored big guitars over synth and sequencer. The section Yesterday begins with the hesitating Dream in a Dream. A sweet composition whose premise is a rolling guitar on a circular motion with sultry solos. We are in Oldfield style here! Around the World presents a more syncopated structure that twirls in loops on guitar solos. Waterfall surprises with its misty intro tinged with silver notes that gambol over a slow crescendo structure and a slightly capering bass sequence. A bewitching synth envelops the track to accompany us to the land of dreams, illusions and fantasies. A very nice track forgotten in lost sessions of Frank Dorittke. Early Years has a very Kraftwerk approach with a zest of Neu! and Michael Rother. A nervous track on an unbridled rhythm and torn of big incisive guitar solos which are entangled with rather shy synth solos. Wishes concludes this retro current work with a beautiful sequence to Michael Rother which drums a timid rhythm, but with the effective melody.
T&Y represents the very parallel and sometimes opposites visions of FD Project. From yesterday to today, Frank Dorittke exploits a musical universe that meanders between Berlin School, Teutonic rhythms and Mike Oldfield's tribal folk approach. An audacious mix that flows in a universe sometimes complex, but always harmonious, where the guitar is master in a sphere filled with interchanging sequences under the bubbling of a synth closer to the mellotron than to its solos.
Sylvain Lupari (September 12th, 2009) ***½**
Available at FD Project Bandcamp