INDRA: Interactive Play (The Essential) Vol. I (2011)
Updated: Mar 28, 2021
“Interactive Play is a beautiful compilation of titles lost in the erosion of time...”
1 Sequence (Kingdom of Light) 2:12
2 Beduins and Camels (excerpt from Tales from Arabia) 3:38
3 Colosseum (excerpt from Colosseum) 5:37
4 Prophet (excerpt Plenitude) 5:21
5 Clairvoyance (Self Game) 5:31
6 Malini (excerpt from Kingdom of Light) 2:57
7 Dynamic Trance (excerpt from Magic Collection)
8 Higher (excerpt Self Game) 3:22
9 Up-to-Date (excerpt from Self Game) 4:03
10 Coming in the City (excerpt from Maharaj) 5:13
11 Temple (excerpt from Plenitude) 3:38
12 While in Oz... (Bonus track recorded in 2007) 24:24
(DDL 68:35) (V.F.)
(Oneiric, Minimalist, Roumanian School)
Indra's career is booming considerably. Over the years, the albums and the shows, the Romanian synthesist has collected a legion of fans who devoured his discography with passion, asking him to dust out his archives in order to hear his first works. Which he did with the reissues of Turning Away, Kingdom of Light, Parallel Time, Plenitude and Cosmic Sound. Except that the other recordings suffer from the wear and tears of time. They are partially, if not completely, destroyed or impossible to re-edit. INTERACTIVE PLAY (The Essential) Vol. I is a compilation which brings together precisely fragments of melodies that he has managed to recover from these recordings lost in the magnetic erosion of the audio tapes. If the quality of the sound varies, that of the compositions shows a very good progression of Indra who spreads his influences to finally master them and find his identity in rhythms and ambiences which intertwine to make room for melodies which are the heart of its sibylline approaches.
Indra's musical caverns open with Sequence from the Kingdom of Light album and its drops of metallic keys falling into a reverberating pond, moving caustic waves that breathe life into a delicate iridescent harmony. In contrast, Beduins and Camels offers its arpeggios plucked in the strings of a celestial harp which flow in vapors of Arab violins on a heavy bass line whose threatening notes oscillate like the introduction of Pink Floyd's One of These Days. It's heavy, powerful and deafening with fine nuances in the strength of the sound that good orchestral arrangements cover of an Arabic veil. Veils which also envelop the swirling rhythm of Colosseum and its poly-forms sequences which crisscross in a rhythmic crossover wrapped in enveloping layers. A rhythm strangely reminding me of the claustrophobic atmospheres of Remy and Klaus Schulze which hides in a good morphic melody dominated by a melancholic piano and angelic choirs. Prophet continues to exploit the dark and nightmarish ambiences with an intro paved with synth gasps which gaze at the layers of organ tones. Without sequences the rhythm is assumed by the jerky synth blows which intersect with good modulations in the movement. It's a well-crafted track that reminds me of Sequence with its creative approach. Clairvoyance