“This album may not be the best one to introduce a newcomer to the music of Indra, but it's one of those that every true fan of Indra will devour”
1 Playing in the Garden 11:48 2 A Long Time Ago 7:18 3 Union (live) 23:49 4 Theta Thinking| 35:03 Indra Music
(CD/DDL 78:20) (V.F.) (Minimalist Roumanian School)
Sequenced keys skip in gust behind an effect of fog, bringing to our ears these soft melodious presages of Halloween. Every ringing frees an additional tone, making so that Playing in the Garden releases itself little by little from its demonic envelope to derive into Indra's very ethereal minimalist universe. Electronic effects flutter and dissolve in the harmonies of a false guitar, whereas the dance of sequences gets a little faster. The movement rises and comes down, fooling the ear with a subtle gear change in the flow. Sighs of synth are lying all along this effect of roller coaster, while Indra frees metallic bangings at the same time as the percussion sculpt a kind of tick-tock. And still, in the 10th minute, the Rumanian synthesist adds other sequences which quaver on this line of minimalist rhythm that we would want endless, so much the charms of Playing in the Garden bring us in a crack of time. The vintage years!
Eighth chapter of the mega series Archives, EMERALD THREE pursues this assault of EM made in Rumania that Indra dusts of his vaults for the greatest pleasure of his fans. And the more we move forward in the series and the more the pleasure becomes a voracity. After the delicious sighs which mewl in the Dalidesque Eden which is A Long Time Ago, the synth is simply enthralling here, Union (live) brings us back to these structures of minimalist rhythms always delicately drummed of the Indra rhythmic world. A little more fluid than the dumbfounded cherubs' pace in the labyrinths of Playing in the Garden, the rhythmic structure of the opening shapes a dance of lost steps in a narrow tunnel where the walls ooze from hoarse gusts. Angelic voices hunt these internal winds at the same time as they reduce the pace which crosses a first ambiospherical phase around the 5th minute. Effects of Elvish voices and breezes fed of ochred dusts float there. Some ringings pierce this mesmerizing layer of elegiac voices about 3 minutes farther, extirpating slowly Union (live) of its morphic torpor with some more and more accelerated beatings where a few shadows of jingles got also lost. Bass pulsations with an increasing pace, the minimalist rhythm reborns of its ashes around the 12th minute by sprinkling the vestiges of its introduction between our ears. Except that here, a filet of more harmonious sequences tolls freely, whereas a soft cloud of mist is cuddling of its wide sedative hand this melody as ambient and drifting as the rhythm which seems to float between celestial bodies. It's some very good Indra, such as we know him since his emergence in 2005. From the height of its 35 minutes, Theta Thinking makes us pass by all the phases of meditative music of Indra. The first 15 minutes are weaved in ambient moods with keyboard chords which scatter their dislocated harmonies in an oblivion worn out by a storm of echoing pulsations. Other electronic effects decorate this transcendental meditation while the rhythm approaches these ambiences like the continuous beatings of a big starving bumblebee. The rhythmic skeleton will not explode. It will implode with lost filets of more crystal-clear sequences, adding an effect of celestial harmony to Theta Thinking which will always remain a big cocoon of meditation.
Very well split between a music of contemplative atmospheres and of minimalist rhythms weavers of melodic obsession, EMERALD THREE ties us more to the introductory period of the Trantic Celebration series. Except for the excellent Playing in the Garden, it's not with this album that we introduce a greenhorn to the music of the Rumanian synth magician. On the other hand, it's a very beautiful complement to the fans of Indra who delighted a little more of those darker albums of this series dedicated to the cosmic power and to the divine beauty of love. But if unfortunately you still didn't have the chance to discover the music of Indra, I would suggest albums such as The Call of Shivra and the striking Generation, realized in 2006. So have a great discovery...
Sylvain Lupari (August 31st, 2016) *****
Available at Indra Bandcamp