"Here is another fine psybient work from Ultimae Records"
1 Initial (Mnnsk & Mizoo) 4:32 2 Tear-Blind Eyes (Rildrim) 8:38 3 Minimum (Liquid Stranger) 5:16 4 Emerge (Sesen) 7:30 5 Idea Spiral (Cell at Ozora Festival 2011) 11:46 6 Nubian Sandstone (Ajja) 5:58 7 Subzero (Tripswitch) 8:07 8 Cobalt 2.0 (Solar Fields) 8:53 9 Flying Dots (Miktek) 6:35 10 Folding Pattern (James Murray) 4:54 11 Broken Dream of A Little Snail (Cygna) 6:44 Ultimae Records | inre 050
(CD/DDL 78:53) (VF.)
(Psybient)
Compiled and mixed by the Swiss DJ Cyril Miserez, GREENOSOPHY is another bewitching musical journey towards psybient and its emerging rhythms offered by the Lyon-based label Ultimae Records. Mizoo (Cyril Miserez) binds 11 titles coming from a bunch of artists with much diversified styles. Eleven titles which interlace on their sci-fi atmospheres to mold an album where the cosmic ambiences, the eclectic and electronic tones wrap, and slow down rhythms and melodies constantly mislaid in aborted melodic and rhythmic coitus. Visibly inspired by Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis, Mizoo overlays his creations of a rich sound fauna, weaving futuristic atmospheres à la Blade Runner of the 22nd century on a rhythmic pattern in perpetual recommencement. Rhythms which emerge to disappear and reappear into deep wrapping morphic layers, following a latent crescendo before reaching the nirvana of techno and trance which vibrate and swirl in stupefying stroboscopic spirals.
And that begins with Initial and its breezes of Orion which blow with an apocalyptic threat. They unleash a lot of tones as earthly as industrialized which groan through smooth floating waves and a delicate Elfic voice which recite an ode to the unknown. The mood is tetanized, and the piercing breaths of the synths remind me the very poetic universe of the so much beautiful Straylight from Dominic Wossey. Tear-Blind Eyes sticks to this oneiric atmosphere with beeps and crystal keys which sparkle and float like tears in a cosmos stigmatized by shrill synth blades. The tempo which wakes up is hesitating. It drops reverberating pulsations which buzz and swirl in incomplete circles, dancing awkwardly around other drummed pulsations and these crystalline keys which shape a strange melodic aura. Minimum pushes its iridescent strata which are dandling under a rain of sparkling chords which shine under the crackling of metallic jingles. A delicate melody roams on a discreet floating down-tempo of which the muffled pulsations caress the beatings under the waves of fine melodic hoops. The more we move forward in GREENOSOPHY and the more the rhythmic tapestry widens its alloy of pulsations, percussions and jingles of all sort which ring and\or pulse of an intermittent but more and more accentuated way. Emerge follows with some cerebral waves which float on a bed of crystalline stars, while a fine rhythmic gallop resounds all over it. The sound setting gets amplified as the rhythm grows with threatening strata which smother the chords weakened in an oblivion iodized by lunar breezes. The tempo buzzes on an indecisive structure where the harmonious envelope sighs dark synth layers to occupy a rhythm which gradually hatch to shut again and reopen with a good pulsatory bass line which beats the measure of a finely jumpy rotary movement fed by echoing percussions and electronic castanets. Idea Spiral moves on with lukewarm chords which are dragging around a galactic melody. Fine percussions to tones of wood and jingles of metal fall and resound, giving a morphic depth to a celestial melody of which the vaporous hoops amass fragments of voice while the tempo is gradually embedded to mold a delicious cosmic down-tempo which swirls lasciviously. The layers of synth weave a beautiful floating melody which hems in space while the languishing rhythm of Idea Spiral continues its stunning cerebral ascension to spin with more certainty, hunting down the morphic ambiences to make room to a strong techno bombarded of pulsations which grow and resound among hatched riffs.
Tergiversating between its futuristic harmonious envelope and interrupted pulsations, the rhythm of Nubian Sandstone is divided between two phases before exploring the suave metalized pulsations which echo around a heavy bass line of which the resonant pulsations pound a muffled and heavy rhythm assisted by echoing percussions and crystal clear keys which are seeking for themselves in this other broken structure. But the bass line leaves its rhythmic imprints which are taken back on the bubbling Subzero which explodes literally around a striking heavy pulsation, lacerated by streaks coming out of a ghostly synth. And the rhythm tumbles with power. Loud and proud it swirls of a zootropic approach with furious bouncy chords which hiccup in a dense cloud of iridescent mists and around percussions of which the metallic strikings resound everywhere around this rhythmic power which buzzes among dreamlike synth layers. This duality between the tranquility of waves and the rhythmic apotheosis reaches its peak with Cobalt 2.0 and its evolutionary rhythm where synth layers à la Jarre and Vangelis criss-crosses in a superb pattern of percussions, pulsations and stroboscopic hoops which feed an always divided rhythmic structure but which is pulsating heavily and swirling deeply in a furious intersidereal dance. Flying Dots calms things down with a superb electronic ballad where slamming percussions resound among the melodic and dark chords of an acoustic guitar. This is very beautiful, and it brings a bigger melodic depth to GREENOSOPHY which sinks into lifelessness with very the atmospheric Folding Pattern. Broken Dream of A Little Snail is a superb track where the strikings of a xylophone made of glass roam on an amazing structure as much harmonious as mysterious. This time it's the melodious envelope which is split and divided between atmospheres and airs torn between delirium and poetry. It's of a strange beauty and it concludes an album which enchants at every new listening, an artistic signature which surrounds the great majority of the works from the Lyon label.
Sylvain Lupari (April 20th, 2012) *****
Available at Ultimae Records