“Pleochroism is an immensely attractive album, thanks to the masterful track-title which is worth the price of the CD”
1 Pleochroism 1 14:24
2 Faint Light 10:56
3 Pleochroism 2 20:52
4 Soarer 15:54
(DDL 62:06) (V.F.)
(Dark Ambient)
It had been a long time since I had heard of my friend Juta Takahashi. The last album I received and reviewed was Light and Shadows, and it's been 4 years. Juta hasn't lost the form and offers us a rather intense album with a good embrace to the Dark Ambient made of karst dust and of corrosive reverberations. Produced, released and distributed by the new English label which offers Tantric solutions for the ears, PLEOCHRISM offers 4 long structures typical of the Takahashi model where black betrays white and beige takes revenge on gray… Except this time the secret harmonies of Seabound enhance the value of this new album by the Japanese musician.
Pleochroism 1 begins with a ray of sound light. Like a nice morning in the electronic campaign. A lazy wave extends its veil of reverberations whose harsh tone is subdivided with the presence of prism, throwing a musical texture to this shimmering river which brings us to the first transition point of Pleochroism 1, that is to say a little before the 6th minute. The long reverberating sighs of the Japanese musician-synthesist are like these invisible impulses of the atmospheric elements responsible for the distribution of oxygen underground. They are at first the main source of the repertoire of Juta Takahashi who uses it as a backdrop in order to introduce this constant tearing between artificial brightness and the reverberating contrasts of mechanical buzzes. There are these deaf impulses also of the milli-synth lines per seconds which weave its sound web like these immense spider masters of its slender natural gutters down in the ground. Someone has put its foot on a nest of light and hundreds of points rise to meet in a compact mass of astral shimmer. Juta made his bed of music where the prisms draw incandescent shapes which infiltrate and subdivide the mass of drones, creating these holes which bring out a little light in his music. It's hard to believe in that, when the first 5 minutes of Faint Light are suspended by harsh radioactive buzzing which will let through violent streaks of opalescent light. These lights fight like whitish demons against these long lifeless guttural murmurs. Pleochroism 2 is rather its opposite with a long logical sequel to the opening title. The thin lines of harmonies and the morning dew atmospheres on the edge of a lake of fire are absolutely immersive. Soarer has this look of this dog lost in a game of skittles with its texture of incredible brightness. Less acute phases balance the two visions, giving a more musical texture to this last monument of refulgence of this album.
I would like to believe the renowned critics when they mention Juta Takahashi as being a master in the art of meditative mood music. It was already the case, but as far as I'm concerned, the torrents of his torments make him rather a much interesting character in the field of Dark Ambient now. If some of his albums have reached heights in the genre of landscapes of living nature, I think among others of Seabound and the colossal Transcendence, it's quite different since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant. PLEOCHRISM manages to temper my perception with an immensely attractive album, thanks to the masterful track-title which at the top of its 35 minutes alone is worth the price of the CD. A CD which is unfortunately discontinued, but the download version is still available on his site. So, a beautiful album where the Dark Ambient has never been so melodious and which places the emotions of the sympathetic musician of Sendai on the same level as in Seabound.
Sylvain Lupari (June 18th, 2020) *****
Available at Neotantra Bandcamp and at Juta Takahashi Bandcamp