“Konrad Kucz shows its ease by bordering experimental paths along good cinematic moods and great juicy sequences a la Berlin School”
1 Air-First Movement 8:47 2 Silver Clouds 4:11 3 Towards the Sky 3:22 4 Soaring Angel 3:52 5 Air-Second Movement 6:23 6 Rising Sun 5:05 7 Let it Out 1:05 8 Daybreak 1:11 9 Long Distance 2:42 10 Under the Blue Sky 3:00 Generator.pl GEN CD 037
(CD 39:36) (V.F.) (Ambient and Berlin School)
It's been a while since my ears met the music of Konrad Kucz. Since 2008 in fact, with the very good Railroad Paths. Since then, the synthesist and big lover of Mellotron has deviated his vision towards a more symphonic music (The Four Seasons) or a more pop one (Kucz and Klake). AIR is a kind of back to the roots. Except that aficionados of Berlin School, don't yell to victory too fast. This last Konrad Kucz's album is a kind of sonic portfolio where the Polish master of the Mellotron exposes10 paintings which if they are quite tinted with the essences of Berlin School are also the reflections of his immense versatility, demonstrating its ease as much in rhythms filled with juicy sequences as with ambiences which flirt with the borders of a more filmic and sometimes even a more experimental music without forgetting a more accessible music. Chronicle of an album which is going to destabilize the listener by its deep moments of atmospherical phases which brush past the nightmare and by some good movement of fat sequences which exploit electronic rhythms that we don't hear anywhere else.
It's with an electronic dialect that Air-First Movement reveals its heavy woosh to our ears. Konrad Kucz reveals the colors of his new album with a wide wave of Mellotron which floats like a vampiric shadow on a track that will reveals frugally the essences of its collection. Cinematic atmospheres, cosmic violins, electronic chirping and dialects as well as vampiric rhythms weaved by a creative synthesizer merge in a long wall of ambiences that a line of sequences crosses with its oscillating keys for short moment. The approach radiates a little the essences of an abstract music wrapped in the charms not always understood of Tomita. Theme music? Intimist music? One must hear the harp of Silver Clouds nibbling our eardrums in order to seize the very elegiac hold of Konrad Kucz on his soundscapes. An oboe and some weeping violins add even more to the melancholic impact of Silver Clouds which at times releases these perfumes of biblical movies. Towards the Sky offers a nice movement of sequences which dance such as agile ballerinas on a carpet of needles. The organic tones and the shadows of sequences decorate this spherical dance of charming elements to the ear. It's very good!
Soaring Angel, as well as Rising Sun, although the latter is less dark, transport us in a universe of dark and lugubrious ambiences with the chants of a supernatural choir. A breath of terrified voice guides Air-Second Movement in a short ambiospherical introduction of the psychotronic years. After 1 minute to the meter, KK lays a great structure of sequences which forges figures of rotatory rhythms with nuances in tones and holes in the circles. A cloud of mist caresses these acrobatic kicks, which little by little accelerates a pace before dissolving in a bank of chthonian voices and of lost gasping. That reminds me a little Clara Mondshine in Memorymetropolis, but in less breathless. This is a good Berlin School track! After the uncountable rotary loops of Let it Out, the short Daybreakentails us in dark ambiences with wooshh and squeaking getting out from darkness. Always very short, Long Distance bases its nightmarish walk on layers of violins which go from an occult hole of hell towards the paths to heavens. We are in the cave of the very filmic music of Konrad Kucz here and Under the Blue Sky proves it by looping the loop with a beautiful electronic ballad to the soft orchestral perfumes of the 60's.
AIR is a quite a sound experience. We notice straight out that Konrad Kucz is somewhere else in his reflection by offering an EM which always flirts on the borders of experimentation without ever venturing there too much, so keeping the listener in imbalance. Each track, even the shortest, is of an incredible wealth in tones and in movements. In brief, an album which infatuates our ears to every listening!
Sylvain Lupari (February 9th, 2016) ***¾**
Available at Generator pl