“There is a new vision on this Platinum One with still a Berlin School, but we have psybient and still this unique morphic techno of Indra style”
CD 21
1 Adorée 12:35 2 The Looking Glass 23:54 3 Pretorian 9:26 4 In Between 7:31 5 Sotto Voce 10:06
6 Elois 8:56
Indra Music (CD-r/DDL 72:30)
(Roumanian School)
As unbelievable and certainly unforgivable, I had totally forgotten the platinum Series of my radar-chronic screen since my last review on the Archives Series, Diamond Five on last April. Very patient, Indra never told me about it. He waited that I asked him how he was doing to ask me if I had liked the Platinum Series. Oops!!! And after having heard PLATINUM ONE, I understood, and as always, that I was missing the music of the friendly musician from Romania who has opened so many doors to local artists. The Berlin School, the psybient and morphic techno are all part of this 21st album of this impressive Series that has nothing to envy to Klaus Schulze's huge boxsets, so much the music is closely related to the musical progression of the German musician.
It's from far that the pulsating rhythm of Adoree is heading up at the bottom of our eardrums. The rhythm is curt, hatched like the flow of a train. A train that returns to the meditative pier I after 4 minutes, before going back on rails very slowly. The second portion is more musical, almost lyrical with more melodious arpeggios that twirl around a rounder structure in the deployment of its sequences. And as it's often the case in the Indra universe, percussions come to anchor the rhythm, became meticulously stroboscopic, in a state of hypnotic Trance for souls in search of an Avatar. The 12 minutes of Adorée represents quite the musical direction of PLATINUM ONE with semi-ambient structures that are copiously sprinkled by percussions, percussive effects and jerky sequence lines, if not arpeggios, which sculpt these dancing hymns and the electronic Trances of the Romanian magician. The world and the charms of Indra are always revealed by a minimalist approach that the synthesist loves to decorate with his innumerable treasures that are small golden nuggets to my ears, as well as to the ears of his many admirers. The Looking Glass is the most beautiful example! Dry winds and percussive effects whose echoes cover our ears with a wall of very catchy tones, the introduction gets rid of this first veil of ambiosonic elements with the appearance of a semi-slow structure, like a hypnotic sensual dance. Indra plunges into the psybient with effect of echoes of the percussive effects where the perpetual cooing of an organic matter which always remains to be identified. Once the drums get silent, we see that the rhythm undulates with more velocity, like a snake crawling through contrary oscillations. We also note the richness of the structure that combines sequences, percussions, bass lines and arpeggios in an electronic decor closer to the stars than of a dance floor. The percussions come back to energize this wave of oscillations which scatter in many filaments of musical arpeggios knotted by jerks, leading The Looking Glass towards a first ambiospherical moment around the 11th minute. A line of arpeggios floats in the void there, giving energy needed to the title which now gets centered on its opening structure.
It's in a loud din that the delicious down-tempo of Pretorian is pointing to our earlobes. Slamming percussion, nervous sequences and pulsating bass line; the rhythm flirts with an ambient Electronica that has enough vitality to weave us on the spot with a good dose of lead in the feet and many vitaminic sounds in the ears. In Between adopts a little this model with strong percussive effects, and others that are organic, on a complex structure which prohibits any kind of dance, although some choreographers could have fun, in this decor surrounded by arpeggios in glass and sounds of slamming crystal that constitute an elegant tonal richness. Foggy synth pads give an ambient vision of Berlin School to a finale that comes a little too early. Sotto Voce brings us a melancholic Indra in his cosmic setting. The pace is sluggish, perhaps slow, with good percussions which slam curtly in a Western music panorama. An electronic Western in a psybient vibe and a melody that makes you dream! Certainly, this PLATINUM ONE does not count any longer its elements of surprises. All that is missing is a nice melody to make us vibrate the little strings of our soul so that the adventure is more than complete, and it is Elois which proposes it. The rhythm is a mid-tempo, except that the keyboard frees harmonious pearls that draw a tear at this secret place hidden in the bottom of our shell. And when the arrangements pour out, goosebumps come with those tears. How not to love Indra? Not with this PLATINUM ONE for sure!
Sylvain Lupari (April 4th, 2019) *****
Available at Indra's Bandcamp