“This is yet another striking opus of Gert who weaves his complex chain of sequencing rhythms around the mystic synth breezes of Miss Haven”
1 Into the Night 7:41
2 Road to Mirage 8:17
3 Awareness of Depth 10:28
4 Mystic Dawn 6:14
5 Infinite Horizon 22:59
6 Reflections 8:02
(CD/DDL 63:47) (V.F.)
(Sequencing Netherlands School)
Year in and year out, alone or in duo, Gert Emmens enchants our ears, and very often our inner spirits, with a solid EM album which makes alternate its rhythms and ambiences by the means of seductive sequenced structures. And MYSTIC DAWN won't do apart. Pushing farther the astral reflections of Life in Cosmic Highway, this 2nd collaboration Emmens/Haven dives into a universe of sequences with movements of centipedes, and their rebellious rhythms, which woo the sweetness duality of musical and harmonious synths in a universe unique to a sound signature that charms our ears for soon 10 years.
Into the Night invites us in the rebellious universe of MYSTIC DAWN with a floating intro which goes into our ears like an old memory more than very pleasant. Lines of synth agglutinate there, drawing apocalyptic odes that the arrival of the first sequences confines in the hidden recesses of our ears. Its keys jumper with harmonious outlines are familiar to us. They undulate in gallop, sculpting these rhythmic structures unique to Gert Emmens repertory. Harmonious rhythms split into duelist fractions which harmonize in this cosmic sea and its synth waves, sometimes shrill and sometimes musical, which coo like the grooves of a rainbow lost in a starred mist. This rhythm loses its keys in an oblivion flavored by these acrylic tones strata before coming back, flattened by good electronic percussions, defying the ochred breezes of a synth with thousand scarlet prisms. Road to Mirage is built on the same precepts. Soft, the intro is perfumed by these tones of synth if captivating which feed our pond of waking dreams throughout this album. The rhythm is smooth. It's like a delicate rodeo in the stars with its puny sequences which skip in the shade of a good bass line, keys with starred tones (another nice harmonious element in MYSTIC DAWN) and of its choirs which hum to fantasy on a rhythmic which fattens its shyness with sober knocks of percussions. Awareness of Depth offers a more nervous rhythm which dives into jerky kicks to tune its flickered pulsations with the throbbing chords of a bass line. The synths are charming throughout this 2nd Emmens/Haven collaboration and here they chant songs with hybrid voices and draw some twisted, complex and solos unique to Emmens' signature, on a structure which abandons little by little its cosmic envelope to embrace a progressive electronic rock path. And it's the same thing for the title-track which, with its twinkling keys and its cosmic aura, finished also diving into a heavy electronic rock adorned by these juicy Emmens solos.
Infinite Horizon also presents a silky cosmic intro with a cloud of heterogeneous tones which roam in veils of ether. The unreal coldness gives way to more musical synth layers which lean towards a gripping astral poetry with cooing synth lamentations. The first sequences arrive early. Shy they get lost in a static broth that explodes to the sounds of slamming percussions to think again about its future, plunging again into an uncertainty which constitutes the strength of this epic title. After a long ambiospheric phase, the percussions are reborn. They skip on the spot, forging a docile rhythm that melts itself to other keys charmer of ears in order to bring a musical depth to two harmonic phases with a good dramatic procession around the 13th minute and to increase the presence of the synths which draw superb dreamy solos and whose harmonic duality is the basis of MYSTIC DAWN. It's a very good track, in the tradition of the good Emmens' ones, with synths that will haunt your ears long after its very ambient last minutes. Reflections follows on a soft rhythm. A kind of cosmic blues with echoing sequences / pulsations that serve as a canvas for another sequencer design whose fluttering chords dance like scissors in the void, perfectly illustrating the floating rhythms of Gert Emmens who vitaminize its structure with more punctuated sequences and more hammered percussions. The rhythm becomes strange in our speakers. Like if it was exhilarated and stubbornly moving through the harmonic barriers of a structure that exudes the freedoms of MYSTIC DAWN.
Why change a winning recipe? Since Waves of Dreams, Gert Emmens seduces with his lines of sequences and their strange harmonic designs as well as his synths with lyrical solos. And MYSTIC DAWN constantly reminds us of that. This latest opus from the Emmens / Haven duo transcends the astral ambiences of Life in Cosmic Highway with a more progressive approach and rhythms which enchant with their indomitable rebellious lines in cosmic phases drowned in superb melodic dualities. Cadenced Haven's synths mature wonderfully in the universe of Gert Emmens who year after year is faithful to the crossroads of his creativity with another powerful work.
Sylvain Lupari (January 12th, 2113) ****½*
Available at Groove nl