“A pretty nice album of Psybient vibes which keeps the electronic side of cosmic ambient beats”
1 Cooking up the Sky 11:06
2 Let's Meet at Dawn 9:00
3 Mr & Mrs Everywhere 7:16
4 Photogenic 5:18
5 Changing Planes 4:18
6 Jagged Orbit 8:05
7 The Happening World 7:50
8 A Minimal Resolution 9:14
(DDL 62:11) (V.F)
(Psybient & Cosmic Rhythms)
The album Syzygies, which appeared on Exosphere last June, was a really nice discovery. The music then courted psybient spheres in sci-fi panoramas on 3D rhythms. It's a bit like what we find in this PATTERNS OF SYNC that Spinnet made in duet with the Irish musician Ryan (Halftribe) Bisset, whose style is quite similar to that of Vasilis Spinnet.
It's with a wave lost between two spheres that the descent of Cooking up the Sky begins. Fragile layers join the sound and percussive effects which tell us that our ears are gently plunging into this psybient new wave. A form of rhythm takes shape in the background. Its desire to fly is held back by fine astral voices and these futuristic rifle shots, as well as their spongy water-bullets. Percussions hold our attention. Barely fully formed, they attract Cooking up the Sky into a good morphic down-tempo where it's the decor that provides most of the charms in this first title of PATTERNS OF SYNC. The cymbals are like hummingbird wings that come and go, while the interplanetary gossip is delightfully provided by a fauna of very interesting tones. A sleigh from Father Heavy-Metal comes to make a short appearance in this park of sound amusements, leading the rhythm towards an ambient final which arrives too quickly. A phase of moods and of hollow winds brings us to the more lively rhythm of Let's Meet at Dawn. A kind of Ambient House, the rhythm is built on these percussions forged inside the throats and which emit gastroesophageal reflux. Small wooden taps accompany these wet tones, while the keyboard spasms collide on an invisible material and whose rebounds form hoops responding to the echo of their musicality. We add jets of mist, ringing of bottles and morphic layers. Thus, Let's Meet at Dawn recovers our interest left vacant in this too hasty finale of Cooking up the Sky. If we like, Jagged Orbit seems to come out from its more rhythmic side.
There is something very Tangerine Dream in the catchy rhythm and always bordered by good sound effects from Mr & Mrs Everywhere. After a slow introduction built on the indecision of its rhythmic orientation, Photogenic gets rid of its vision of slow-tempo to fly towards a mid-tempo well framed by manual percussions and these keyboard riffs whose luminous hoops always have an elastic envelope. Changing Planes is a slow track, rich in its tonal appearance, where percussions play with our sense of rhythm. A dark title where the rain, like the voices, seem present like not there at all. A layer filled of volcanic drizzle spreads its shroud with a slight jerky effect. The Happening World then develops with jets of nasal mist and very muted explosions that feed on the bubbling magma while a bass pulsation knocks a linear rhythm. The sound effects amplify their diversity while the explosive bulbs are more heard. We also hear these agile tinkles on live bottles and slicks of condemned voices in a musical structure which accelerates its pace without ever succeeding in getting out of its niche of ambient rhythm. The ambiances and the vision of A Minimal Resolution respect quite well those that one can have of the title. It's a shame, because a little long and useless. We ignore it, or we fall asleep on it, and we have a really good album, not to say superb, of this first Halftribe & Spinnet collaboration.
Available only in downloadable format and in 24BIT Master Sourceb on the American label's website, PATTERNS OF SYNC extends this series of albums which confirms the increasingly dominant presence of Synphaera Records in the psybient universe. A psybient more cosmic than organic with rhythms more present than stifled by the density and diversity of a sound fauna in search of perfection.
Sylvain Lupari (May 10th, 2020) ****¼*
Available at Synphaera Bandcamp