“If J-M Jarre's early works appeal to you, Jeffrey Koepper's music is just what you need”
1 Quadranteon Part I 16:06
2 Quadranteon Part II 19:42
3 Quadranteon Part III 27:54
4 Quadranteon Part IV 8:43
(DDL 72:25) (V.F.)
(Cosmic analog EM)
Let's drop the TD talks and write about real music. Music written and produced with passion and a clear desire for evolution from Jeffrey Koepper. There are a lot of sound flashbacks that go through my ears when I hear the introduction of Quadranteon Part I. From No Man's Land (Tangerine Dream) to Equinoxe (Jean-Michel Jarre), Quadranteon Part I starts off with cosmic vapors that ripple like aurora borealis and roll like star-filled froths. These slow oscillations are perfumed with synth breezes that stick to a soft and progressive rhythmic tangent hopping in a sound universe full of reverberating waves. From this movement escape sounds of muffled sirens which furrow a spatial nebulosity with shape-shifting sequences and solos of a poetic delicacy. This 6th studio opus of the American synthesist continues his mythical quest for cosmic sounds elaborated from sonic research of his analog equipment and creative imagination for a solid compositional work. QUADRANTEON is divided into 4 parts; two very animated and two very atmospheric.
If Quadranteon Part I is gently animated by a progressive rhythm, Quadranteon Part II plunges us into the spheres of a distant cosmos that we climb like an ascension slowed down by a weightlessness effect. Arpeggios float in a Cosmos that responds with echo, slowly orbiting the timeless staircase of QUADRANTEON. The sound universe is skillfully restored. Clothed as it is with superb analog effects that undulate lazily on waltz movements of good tightly packed layers as well as minimalistic chords that indicate and trace the celestial path to follow. A long (that's the first impression I got) but delightful astral and meditative journey that spills over into the fierce and biting Quadranteon Part III. Juxtaposed waves float romantically in the opening of the best track on this new Jeffrey Koepper album. It is animated by a synth with corrosive reverberations, announcing a rhythm that undulates with a muffled heaviness. Linear and minimalistic chords follow with a sober frenzy that is accentuated with a new layer of minimalistic chords whose lines intertwine with more limpid keys. The music gets more frenetic and spits out melodious sounds that blend perfectly to this astral jungle with variable pulsations, feeding an increasingly complex structure, all wrapped up in heavy pads of a synth with multiple sonic variances. A brief atmospheric moment cuts the track which comes back with a new rhythmic structure mainly arched on a good bass sequence coated more and more by a vaporous and warm synth. A very good and powerful track which joins the model of romance of the analog French School with Jean-Michel Jarre in the lead and Frederic Mercier on his delicious Music from France. It is in the spatial peace that this album concludes, with the morphic and sweet Quadranteon Part IV. Where the effect of floating in your head is as omnipresent as on Part II, but shorter. A soft and slow black waltz where the furtive cadenced glides prevail on the binary measures. Beautiful and soft, warm and inviting!
Just like this beautiful and poetic ode to cosmos by Jeffrey Koepper, who, year after year, invites us to his unique musical rendezvous in these times of contemporary tonality. If Jean-Michel Jarre's early works appeal to you, Jeffrey Koepper's music is just what you need.
Sylvain Lupari (November 13th, 2009) ***½**
Available at Jeffrey Koepper Bandcamp