“Nothing more, nothing less, this Diamond Five pursues the same paths of minimalist poetry which have forged the 5 albums of this Diamond chapter”
1 Elegy for Theya 13:49 2 Mar 18:18 3 Three of a Kind 16:13 4 Innerspace 17:35 5 La Cappella 10:55 Indra Music
(CD/DDL 76:53) (V.F.) (Roumanian School)
Nothing more, nothing less, DIAMOND FIVE pursues the same paths of minimalist poetry which forge the 5 albums of this Diamond section from the Rumanian sonic bard. Murmurs of castratoes choir are covering of a layer of ethereal voices the sound honeys which decorate the nebulous opening of Elegy for Theya. Synth layers float idly in the caresses of these voices of eunuchs which sometimes stretch their juvenile tenderness with a gradation of drama in their octaves. Slow and meditative, Elegy for Theya condemns its first 7 minutes on these songs and other murmurs on synth waves fill of anesthetizing perfumes. Pulsations emerge from a dense celestial mist after these 7 minutes. Its beatings are as soft as a heart in state of hibernation and they synchronize the ambient beat with this pond of chaste voices and other glittering electronic effects. From not much, Indra does big things because the Rumanian musician is passed master in the art of minimalist EM. Like here where his hypnotic prose, always haloed with chloroformed synth layers, nails us to our earphones. Mar follows the same rules but with a little more tonus in the rhythm which, this time, is sculpted on a rotatory movement of the sequencer. The oscillation of the chords proposes nuances in the color and in the beatings and Indra adds little by little his sound elements which make the charms of his talent of sound hypnotist. Here, it's pulsations loaded of resonances, jingles, percussions of which the random blows amplify this Indra charm, because we feel that something is not in its place anymore, and finally fine synth solos charmer of senses. The spheroidal march of Mar proposes a soft velocity, hardly amplified, as much in the pace as this rotary movement of the sequencer of which the harmonious keys tinkle more and more. Velocity or not, percussions or not, the ear-catchy evolution of Mar stays all the same in the field of astral rhythm, in the field of ambient rhythm, the while finale is flirting with a sort of rock for zombies which are tired of surviving. Three of a Kind doesn't lose time to start things up. This very good movement for sequencer starts with a suite of arpeggios which skips like balls over a conveyor in madness. Uniting their various crystalline tones and catching a good bass line which rolls such as a fictitious train, the movement espouses then a down-tempo solidified by the percussions. Glass arpeggios sparkle in all directions, oscillating and swirling with a harmonious texture while the keyboard tries to follow the parade and while the rhythm starts to gets slowly more undulatory and even a bit spasmodic Two minutes farther and the percussions get back to kick up a good up-tempo. Sometimes freed from an ambient imprint and sometimes smothered by the mass of the weight of the sequences, Three of a Kind evolves with its phases of morphic dance or by crossing its identities and flowering its velocities with a silvered transparency in its arpeggios whereas percussions remain sober and the synth as well the keyboard are just as much. This is this kind of EM unique to the signature of the Rumanian synth wizzard.
There are still very good movements, even if the feeling to be the happy prisoner of the same hypnotic structures, of cerebral catalepsy in this last segment of the Diamond series. And "Innerspace" is a very beautiful one. Its introduction is linked to its title with layers of intersidereal atmospheres and with lunar orchestrations which waltz and intertwine their floating washes between thick clouds of global sediments and the sighs of big cosmic mammals. A line of throbbing pulsation proposes a cardiac movement of an Alien and isolates a structure of rhythm which gallops constantly through a tide of interstellar winds. This mass of sounds and of urges grows up in a stroboscopic effect while gets grafted a plethora of percussive effects which make the percussions even more ear-catchy. Let's add to it breaths of mist and synth airs on this long structure of which the velocity remains latent and we have the best of Indra puts in less than 20 minutes. "La Cappella" ends this last chapter of the Diamond series with a good structure of down-tempo where we let float our bodies on a floor of mist. Layers of voices, sometimes discreet and sometimes very present, go and come between the shocks of the sonic hoops and of the effects of echoes of the chords which are less hard-hitting and less catchy than these knocks of a pugnacious bass line which hits us into the kidneys. A good down-tempo as lively as meditative! I admit it! I am and remain an enthusiastic fan of Indra and his music. And it's been a while. I like his long evolutionary structures decorated of sound honey and of transcendental poetry. A little more ethereal than Diamond Four, this DIAMOND FIVE still has again and always these catchy elements which make of his minimalist music a delight to let devour our ears and sometimes even our brain! Sylvain Lupari (April 13th, 2018) *****
Available at Indra Bandcamp