“We have here a more dancing, a more rock/techno side of Indra with a nice collection of pretty good tracks”
1 Sunshine in Blue Eyes 7:30 2 Mustang Le Rouge 7:36 3 Nostalgia 8:02 4 Pyar 3:42 5 Fiesta 6:11 6 A Late Evening 11:13 7 The Nile Experience 10:08 8 Speedy G 9:53 9 X-Factor 8:14 10 Sanctum 4:23 Indra Music
(CD/DDL 76:56) (V.F.) (Mix of EDM, morphic techno and ethereal moods)
We pursue the exploration of the universe split up in the limbo and scattered between 1998 and 2005 of the Rumanian synthesist with this 4th chapters of his Ruby series which is walled up in the serial mega of 25 CD entitled Archives. And this time we get closer a little more our contemporary Indra with about ten tracks which explore more the Dance side than the melancholic poetic side of Indra and whose influences here seem to be enshroud by the structures of Jean-Michel Jarre and his techno Kid clothes rather than by those of a Klaus Schulze roaming in his long minimalist sonic rivers. Albeit both sides live very well together at some points in this RUBY FOUR.
Sunshine in Blue Eyes and Mustang Le Rouge bear proudly the sonic seal of the tape limitations of the end of the 90's. To start well, Sunshine in Blue Eyeswelcomes a soft melody blown by a synthesized flute and strummed by a tenderly melancholic piano. The synth is charming with nice cooing solos and with good electronic effects which blab over a muffled tempo structured in the comfort of a good electronic ballad. That does very New Age, another facet than we did not know from Indra and that we learn to discover in this huge collection. Tears of violins which wash over in a staccato move and which open the very Arabian Mustang Le Rouge drown themselves in the sweetnesses of a fluty synth while the track divides its 7 minutes of a romantic and ethereal introduction in order to dive into a soft kind of techno with pulsations and percussions which lift a duel of jerky harmonies. Composed in 1999, Nostalgia does very Vangelis of the Opera Sauvage years with an ambient structure where the lines of flute stroll as much as a very nostalgic piano. Then we make a huge jump in time with 6 pieces of music written in 2004. A jump in time and a jump in style with a more energetic EM which hesitates between some hard and pure techno, a softer one (almost morphic) and an EDM. Pyar begins with a mix of techno and of dance music where some very hatched stroboscopic lines, good boom-boom-tchak-tchak pulsations and a very creative play of percussions bear the charms of some very pleasant and attractive Arabian chants. It sounds very J-M Jarre of the Chronology years, in particular because of its heavy structure of rhythm raised on good percussions. Fiesta is livelier, yes it can be, with a gypsy approach on a beat of lead. We find more the Indra that we discovered at the end of the 90's with the very beautiful A Late Evening which is very ethereal with sibylline layers which float in prismic particles. The movement is soft, very esoteric and the layers become more melodious while that quite slowly A Late Evening goes into a beautiful down-tempo wrapped by these silky layers which swirl in a soft torrent of emotionalism.
The Nile Experience also proposes a long evolutionary structure. It starts with a herd of sequenced pulsations which skip in a circular structure of ambient rhythm. Electronic effects decorate this passive staging whereas subtly the rhythm increases its velocity with pulsations which gurgle and with other technoïd pulsations which redirect the capers of the introduction towards a structure animated by effects of jerks. The Nile Experience gets develop inside its 10 minutes without ever really exploding, preferring rather a brief ambient passage before resuming its structure of cerebral techno. Written at the same time, Speedy G begins with a rhythmic fury contained in the sparkling of sequences which chirp in the shadows of slow and idle layers. It's the knockings which liven up this desire of rhythm. And this rhythm becomes a good morphic techno adorned of some nice cosmic effects à la Jarre and splendidly musical synth solos. This is where Jarre meets Schulze here! It's one of the good tracks in this Ruby series! X-Factor is cast into the same decorative mold but with a clearly lighter and a more musical structure. Composed in 2005, Sanctum ends RUBY FOUR with a more lyrical, a more ethereal approach. The structure sounds so much like those long quiet symphonies of Klaus Schulze with chords and keys which roll in loops, like a sonic brook in suspension, into some slow and anesthetic layers which cover up a soft and almost absent rhythm. It's especially very soft and rather elegiac. And quietly this Ruby collection leads us towards the Indra that we know and that we recognize more and more here.
Sylvain Lupari (January 12th, 2016) *****
Available at Indra Bandcamp