“Here's a solid opus of EM built upon a lively sequencer-based style loaded of retro analog of the Berlin School moods”
1 Marly (Part 1) 9:40 2 Marly (Part 2) 6:11 3 Marly (Part 3) 7:00 4 Marly (Part 4) 8:54 5 Marly (Part 5) 7:26 6 Marly (Part 6) 7:50 Sense/Net | SN051
(DDL 47:05) (V.F.) (Sequencer-based Berlin School)
Here is a splendid surprise that I almost forgot in the chinks of my lap-top. Who is Lost Radiance? It's a band of 4 Russian musicians (Alexander Asimov, Roman Rogov, Roman Zorin and Yuriy Miller) who simmer, together or in solo projects, an EM propelled by lively movement of sequencers or still flooded in dark ambiences. MARLY is a 2nd opus which is held far from the dark territories of Sirius Radiance, a Roman Rogov's dark ambient music project. And I have to admit that I was totally seduced by 5 superb movements, the finale is more serene, of sequencers which draw rhythms, and their subtle evolutions, in an electronic universe filled with these magnetizing perfumes of the analog universe.
Small butterflies filled with rhythmic tones frolic at the opening of Marly (Part 1). A good layer of voices, emanating from the void, gives celestial airs to this rhythm so delicate as the webbed feet of a duckling which discovers its lake by making perfect circles. It's the bass line which precipitates things from the 2nd minute. Its keen palpitations add an always motionless swiftness while a wide band of bluish mist always gives a celestial privilege to this first title of MARLY. Another lines of sequences, more crackling, gets in at the same moment as our duckling decides to modify the design of its circles. Rich in analog tones and fertile in the reshaping of an always motionless structure, here and all over the album by the way, Marly (Part 1) is a very nice invitation to those who discover the universe of the Russian quartet. Marly (Part 2) does in very Berlin School with its introduction weaved with layers of vaporous mists which float like the vapors of a dream. A discreet line of arpeggios is undulating with a chant in the movement and electronic effects are chirping in the decor. Quite slowly the fog becomes a harmonious layer which reveals its seductive chant and of which the shadow, more musical, prints its Berliner imprint on Marly (Part 2). We can hear pulsations at the door of the two minutes. The rhythm is as smooth as a snake which hypnotizes its prey in an imaginary dance just as our senses have no chance to escape to the charms of this fascinating album of Lost Radiance. Marly (Part 3) is clearly the wildest track here. The movement of the sequencer sculpts some small minimalist rhythmic loops while a 2nd movement espouses the curves with a light difference in the tone. This rhythmic movement modifies its pace in a mass of hypnotizing fog, firing up a rhythmic and melodic pace which sounds like a derisive chant in a loud and wild rhythmic spiral. Delicious! Aerial, Marly (Part 4) puts down an alternative movement which oscillates with hypnotic loops. The movement takes a more ethereal tangent in the middle. And as everything remains in movement in MARLY, some percussive effects feed my ears always starved by these sequences which skip and pound, modifying even their paces, in a universe deprived of mists and of artifices from the synths. Marly (Part 5) is quite in contrast with a heavy and lively structure where bring out layers of Tangerine Dream's Jive years. It's a loud, boisterous and surprisingly musical sequencer-based style. My ears are always greedy for a style so heavy and effective at the level of the Mephistophelian effects. Marly (Part 6) lays down light arpeggios which ring as a rain finishes its tears in an ambience of melancholy. Others fall and shape a delicious sibylline air, which is as well near of a Halloween (the movie) ritornello than of the eternal light, that a huge layer of angelic voice attracts towards the void.
Offered in a downloadable format only, like the Lost Radiance's first album, Upon Us released in 2014, MARLY is a very good album which is going to seduce the aficionados of an EM exhausted by lively and heavy structures of sequences. The atmospheres and the sound mass is just as much attractive with harmonies which draw their charms as much from the sequencers as the synths. Fans of Berlin School!? To your wallets! Sylvain Lupari (April 27th, 2017) ****½*
Available at Lost Radiance's Bandcamp