“Again, there are small jewels on this Ruby Three which escort me now to my beddy-byes or my evenings of musing near a chimney fire”
1 Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra in F sharp 7:55 2 Taurus 11:00 3 Pixies, Gnomes and Fairies 6:50 4 Let's Do It 7:35 5 Easy Tempered 8:37 6 Gipsy Dance 6:51 7 When in Dreams 11:04 8 Titans at Work 10:12 9 Romance 8:54 Indra Music
(CD 79:02) (V.F.) (Minimalist orchestral and quiet EM)
Two orchestral lines where the caresses of violins dance in the jerky bites of others, Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra in F sharp begins this 3rd chapter of this vast series of music forgotten in Indra's vaults with a symphonic and acoustic approach which will leave its imprints throughout this RUBY THREE. The acoustic guitar, sculpted in the Kurzweil or the Wavestation synths, makes run its notes all through the keyboard with the same dexterity as a guitarist Flamingo. These notes dance and spin with fluty airs and arrangements as well silky as lively and jerky, bringing the music of the Rumanian synthesist towards a level more symphonic than electronic, even if the whole thing is heard in our imagination and is drawn from electronic equipments. RUBY THREE presents us another musical visage of Indra. Even if we hear some Klaus Schulze influences, I think among others of Gipsy Dance, this collection of music written at the same time of the very beautiful Echo in Time, between 1998 for the last 7 tracks and 1999, shows us a more acoustic and symphonic approach of Indra.
In fact, only the undulatory and zigzagging structure of rhythm in Taurus returns us to the electronic side of the one to whom we owe the fascinating series Tantric Celebration. The movement of sequences is lively. It slams as mini Glockenspiel over a line of discrete and effective bass. The bangings of clogs, the mists of ether, the slow and wrapping orchestral movements as well as the random percussions are Indra's usual signature who remains all the same rather sober in its approach. Even if the rhythm becomes livelier and pulsatory. We owe to notice this small tendency that has the Rumanian artist who wants constantly to charm our ears with a pallet of sounds which follows the parade of the movement. Let's Do It is also a very electronic track with a regular movement of a metronome to which is grafted a mixture of percussions full of heterogeneous tones and loaded with unpredictable strikes, we always stay in Indra's universe, as well as thick cloud of effects and of electronic harmonies borrowed at the repertoire of those years when the EM made its charms burst with Pop Corn. After that, we fall in a particular universe where an enticing gypsies' approach unveils its charms to our ears. Pixies, Gnomes and Fairies extricates itself from an introduction eaten away by percussions and arrangements as much unpredictable than sudden in order to offer a fascinating lullaby for children fascinated by a universe of fantasies. One would say even a nursery rhyme for Christmas with very orchestral movements which are also elegant as a ambient waltz in three times. Easy Tempered is a very beautiful electronic ballad falsified by a synth which stole notes of an acoustic guitar. The rhythm is slow, even when persecuted by the hammerings of a bass drum and offers its fragility to some nice and very dreamlike arrangements. Without these percussions which bang constantly, one would believe to hear Vangelis in the time of Opera Sauvage. It's quite moving! You like? You are going to devour When in Dreams, a long very ethereal acoustic lullaby which is so much similar to the universe all in dream of the famous Greek musician. This my friends, is some very beautiful music to put you to sleep in the arms of Morpheus! Titans at Work begins like these folk dances of the years of the Games of Throne. Little by little, the slow movement adorns itself with electronic effects in order to adopt a more Mediterranean style where the signature of Indra revives the whole thing of an orchestral approach gangrened by the indecision of the movements. The 2nd part is silkier with good orchestral arrangements (rolls of symphonic drum and caresses of stringed instruments) which fill the evasive harmonies of a Southern guitar. Do I need to describe Romance? Keyboard arpeggios, soaked with uncertainty, hesitate to coil up between our ears after an opening fed by hollow winds and by ringings of cymbals. Gradually these chords, which sound like riffs of guitar, describe harmonious circles that a synth perfumes of lines sculpted in tenderness. Romance hatches out definitively with delicate knocks of bass percussions. More melancholic dreamer than romantic pensive, the movement is slow. The harmonies have a more gypsy nature while the pulsations accelerate the pace without ever making Romance overflowing of its contemplative bed.
This RUBY THREE respects in every respect the aimed goal of such a collection; either to emphasize the diversity of an artist with a music which looks like him without however holding him prisoner of his style. We have a beautiful collection of music here which reveals a side, already felt needs to admit it on the Echo in Time album, of an artist who likes to challenge the limits of his signature. It's Indra, there are no doubts! A different Indra who shows his more romantic and more seigniorial side rather than the spiritual and electronic one. I loved it well and there are small jewels here which accompany me now for my beddy-byes or my evenings of musing near a chimney fire. This should give you an idea of the spirit which surrounds RUBY THREE.
Sylvain Lupari (December 6th, 2015) ***¾**
Available at Indra Bandcamp