“An album of ambiences that live as much in the astral as in the abyssal borders with a slight hint of ambient rhythms here and there”
1 Inner Beauty 15:27
2 Photon Warp 7:16
3 The Magic Pool 6:26
4 Golden Glow 20:58
5 Virga at Terrafour 25:14
(DDL 75:24) (V.F.)
(Ambient EM)
Almost a year after Sonic Being, Lingua Lustra returns to us with another album of peaceful cosmic atmospheres. ASTRA closely follows the lines of its predecessor, notably the title Love Prism, by offering phantom and soft rhythms in interplanetary panoramas where the stars are within earshot.
Inner Beauty is the kind of thing we slip into our iPod, section; night music! After the fall of a morphic sound mass, the sequencer weaves a line of rhythmic melody which makes fun of all the implosive elements, even the most aggressive ones, which surrounds this fascinating lunar ballad. Woven in a circular pattern that goes up and down, back and forth in a long spheroidal tunnel, it winds the first ASTRA landscapes. Soft, even with these granules of distortions that emerge here and there, this hypnotic grip of Inner Beauty is faced with a shadow. It's a muffled impulse, more accentuated in places, by a creeping bass line which imitates this chant of cybernetic birds forgotten in the hidden beauty of this planet and which gives a rhythmic and melodic imprint in two dimensions. With the murmurs of the angels helping, Photon Warp continues to exploit the charms of ambient music reflected in the nostalgic melody. Here, it looks like the chords of a bass guitar, a bit like in the first title, which plays the throat in a setting much more enchanting than that of Inner Beauty. Heavier and darker, The Magic Pool takes us away from the harmonious and peaceful setting of the first 22 minutes of this album. The winds are stormy with sound effects that streak the last ounce of serenity that our imagination is willing. Except that this mass is gradually trapped in a vertical tube that a giant hand turns with handles of jingling added here and there. But in reality, The Magic Pool may as well be a title with pious Tibetan moods where dozens of hands spin dozens of chimes in unimaginable forms
The tinkles in the enveloping waters of Golden Glow are more held, more discreet. This slow movement unfolds with astral voices which act like the usual winds and fog banks with a much more celestial approach. The tinkles even sculpt a delicate melody whose resonances fade in the voices. Five minutes later, and we hear a first implosion coming from a layer of ambiences closer to the reality of these long musical stories that guide us to sleep. But still, Golden Glow exudes the promises of its title. On the other hand, a more somber dimension invites itself after the 7th minute, giving a second breath to this illusion of Musical Mass whose vision becomes more enigmatic. This little deviation doesn't detract from the beauty of this long title which is an excellent guide for meditation, reading and even sleep. Starting from a whistle that has become a siren, Virga at Terrafour ends this latest album by the Dutch musician with a long structure of drones. These reverberating breaths radiate a heavy storm of sounds which become masses drifting under fine implosions, you can barely hear them, and distant murmurs of machinery. The movement exploits its many sound facies; from the whistling of the winds to the ventriloquist murmurs of the various synths' mass of sounds, without forgetting this delicate translucent approach which infiltrates the elements of a title which must be listened to carefully to perceive one's life. Otherwise it passes in our ears and these filters which brings it into oblivion…
Of course, you don't drive a truckload of explosives while listening to ASTRA! 😉
Available only on download on the Bandcamp platform of Exosphere Music, ASTRA is an ambient album. An album of ambiences that live as much in the astral as in the abyssal borders with a slight hint of rhythm here and there which makes the adventure, the discovery of this last album of Lingua Lustra a little more pleasant.
Sylvain Lupari (April 5th, 2020) *****
Available at Exosphere's Bandcamp