“Trancesession equals some of the classics of the vintage years and is one of the best Berlin School, probably the best, of the 90's”
1 Voyage To Nowhere Part I 12:40 2 Trancemission Part I 20:20 3 Star Motion 11:53 4 Trancemission Part II 15:05 5 Voyage To Nowhere Part II 13:18 Spheric Music | SMCD 4001
(CD 73:21) (V.F.) (Berlin School)
Classics don't age. They remain there imperturbable and always ready to light the fires of the nostalgia. TRANCESESSION is a work of the most attractive. It's an album of dark Berlin School filled by drifting ambiences and progressive rhythms that was released in a wrong time. A pure masterpiece of progressive EM that has doubtless inspired groups such as ['ramp], Redshift and Node, this album was released in a total indifference of the medias. In the 90's, EM was hardly breathing in front of the desertion of its precursors who were looking for glory, for fortune and for recognition in front of an industry asepticized by the MTV generation and its derivates such as Techno, Drum'n'Bass and other genres. The European press have followed the course of these old dinosaurs and the change of the new guard, forgetting a generation of brilliant musician-synthesist such as Lambert Ringlage and Stephen Parsick, as well as several others. It's thanks to this bastion of hardliners if EM of the Berlin School style has known how to keep its letters of noblesse.
The duet pulls us in these loops, these balls of timeless waves, which roll in a dense pattern of synth solos and effects in order to present us a sonic feast which begins and ends by Voyage To Nowhere; a long musical fresco tinted of Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze fragrances, presented in 2 parts. The first part starts with quite lively felted pulsations and jingles of metallic percussions of which the tsitt-tsitt are taken in the veils of the winds of a synth and of its old organ tones. The first detail which holds attention is the sound. The duet doesn't hesitate to bring out tones of former days, wrapping the ambiance of an analog authenticity with all the electronic effects which are connected with it. The fans of vintage EM will be delighted to hear the perfumes of Adelbert Von Deyen throning on these ambiences. The movement is supple, fluid and minimalist. Always leaned on a continual and hypnotic beating, it modifies hardly its rhythmic path except for fine nuances in the tones which escapes from some bass jolts here and there, in particular as finale approaches. The impression to hear these famous cosmic rumbas of Jarre gets amplifying as the pace reaches a good cruising speed. It's at the top of the rhythm that everything is taking place. The harmonies, the ambiences! Floating of its hallucinogenic perfumes a bit Arabian, Voyage To Nowhere Part I offers a superb harmonious wealth with synth waves which multiply shadows and twists before reaching the threshold of creativity with a beautiful melody sprinkled on a movement of crystal-clear sequences. The jumping keys forge harmonic somersaults in a dense fog of synth waves to the aromas deliciously analog. Waves which little by little take the control of Voyage To Nowhere Part I which dives into a violent finale that will wake wonderful souvenirs when Schulze's Picture Music has besieged our ears. Intense! Voyage To Nowhere Part II hangs onto the structure of its first part by exploiting a little more the aggressiveness of solos. the beat is just as crazy, as furious than on Part I.
Mooing winds multiplying sound particles are opening Trancemission Part I which offers a rhythmic structure arched on sequences of which the lively somersaults drop doubles. The movement reminds me the jerky rhythms of Tangerine Dream. A nice bass line feed the fury of the oscillatory rhythm which skips into a dense veil filled by aromas of old organ. The percussions bind onto this rhythm while the synth escapes solos with whistled airs. Throughout its 20 minutes, Trancemission Part I maintains its agile pace with this meshing of electronic percussions and sequences which pounds in antithesis of a bass line a bit funky whereas the riffs and layers of synth fatten a pace which serves cause to the numerous solos with essences as cosmic as ethereal. It's a big electronic rock filled with contorted synth solos racing and darting in an impressive pattern of electronic arrangements which sounds a little bit pale when the heavy, jerky and boosted flow of Trancemission Part II is landing in our ears, after a very Jarre cosmic intro. There also the solos shape some twisting electronic acrobatics. We never could imagine to be closer of cosmos than with the long opening of Star Motion. The movement is slow, very ambiospherical, and floats such as a long threatening shade with its fragrances of Mephistophelian organ. The influence of Stephen Parsick here is dominant with this black ambient side which releases its metallic flavors. We are in the lands of Irrlicht. But not really for a long time! Because fascinating movements of rhythm emerges through the slow modulations of the winds. If the first one is dark, the second one reveals some more crystal-clear sequences which run like loops without breaches in these lines of synth of which the scarlet colors howl of fury. The movement of sequences subdivides its keys which dance in a fascinating symbiosis. The rhythm equals a kind of ascent, while the turbulences of the synths draw these winds which undermine the climbing of a rhythm that will remain ambient, even with the addition of the percussions.
Without making compromises on each of their artistic approaches; Lambert Ringlage, who likes rhythms and melodies, Stephen Parsick, who thinks ambient as black that his structures of ambient rhythms, offer one of the most beautiful jewels of contemporary EM. This is pure Berlin School stamped by these psychotronic visions whose hallucinogenic fragrances are feeding a very progressive approach. The play of sequences is splendid. The keys are aggressive and refuse the domination of the ambiospherical elements, even in Star Motion, with aggressive flip flops of which the minimalist approaches refute any kind of hypnotic submission. I take this album as a tribute opus to the deserters of the kind who looked for a more commercial approach. An album which even equals some of the classics of that time and one of the best Berlin School, probably the best, of the 90's. Indomitable and weaved in no kind of compromise, TRANCESESSION is an album of EM to possess. Sylvain Lupari (Marsh 15th, 2007) ****½*
Available at Spheric Music & CD Baby