“Sparrows is a superb find where the the Brückner/Everling duo draws a surprising sonic journey into the land of modern EM and electronica”
1 The Sparrow (Vocal Version) 13:26
2 Trees and Wires 4:08
3 Crossing the Bridge 9:38
4 Gathering 6:32
5 On a Quiet Night 12:22
6 Flying North 8:41
7 The Sparrow (Ambient Version) 10:30
8 The Sparrow (Instrumental Version) 13:20
(CD-r/DDL 78:39) (V.F.)
(Mix of ambient and electronica)
Quietly, Michael Brückner is building a very enviable reputation in EM circles of a more progressive genre. His latest find is a fairly eclectic collaboration with Detlev Everling, a French horn player and synthesizer who also likes to use plug-ins that sound like his wind instrument. And the result is quite amazing. Even if SPARROWS is on the rather ambiospheric division of SynGate (Luna), the duo Brückner & Everling, with the complicity of Cräcilia Brückner on vocals, offers an album that caresses all spheres of an current EM with lively music , sometimes very close to IDM and electronica, with just the right amount of ambiances to draw fascinating cinematographic patterns. An amazing sonic journey that will leave some of you more than perplexed.
Gray-colored reverberations shake the void of the slim silvery disc which gradually bites the music with whispers fading in the breaths of French horns. From its extremely seductive sonic envelope, The Sparrow (Vocal Version) extends a magnanimous sinister veil where the breaths of the horns blend easily with those more vitriolic of the synths. The atmospheres are ethereal. There is a scent of astral meditation with synth lines, rich in Gothic mist, which float like threats on a field covered with moss. Morning chimes are shivering with concern under the breezes of French horns and of synthesized similarities from Detlev Everling whose fascinating fusion spreads a pleasant scent of medieval discomfort. And suddenly, there is like a crossbow shooting through the atmosphere. We are in the 5th minute and quietly The Sparrow (Vocal Version) reveals its fascinating rhythmic phase with a heavy coat of anguish which covers a cloud of these crossbow shots. This passage is simply awesome. This phase of abstract rhythm is transformed into an attractive morphic down-tempo that the delicate and bewitching voice of Cräcilia Brückner covers with chants and ethereal breaths. A superb duel between French horn and synth with delicately near aromas, introduces a nice musicality which blends admirably well with the Elvish chants of Cräcilia Brückner and especially to a rhythm which has become lascivious, suggestive. Particularly good and quite amazing for a Luna division album! These strange crossbow shots, which can easily be confused with the flight of a hundred sparrows, come back to haunt the fragile dark ambiences of Trees and Wires. There where the synths and the wind instruments sow confusion with an ambiosonic canvas fertile in sculptures of anxiety. Although a little less strange and gloomy than Trees and Wires, Gathering offers a suffocating ambience where the synth breaths become as multi-colored as their shapes which haunt like ectoplasmic delusions a 6 minutes of vibes made for American Horror Story. Flying North is in the same genre, the same form but more experimental, more psychotronic if I may add.
Crossing the Bridge will be your first real crush on SPARROWS. The eclectic duo offers a kind of soft trance techno with a vertical rhythm molded in pulsations as sober as muffled. The charm is this fascinating vocal approach where one hears a kind of didgeridoo spreading its raucous breaths on a rhythm which fats its adornment with a charming concert of chimes and pulsations became freer, more oscillating. The synths are closer to the usual electronic territories with wave twists that float like clouds of ether with sibylline harmonies. I hung on the first listen and I find it still just as good on the 5th. It's in my iPod, upbeat music section. After having soaked our ears in a thick fog filled of sibylline drizzle, On a Quite Night floats between two atmospheres before melting in a delicate down-tempo which oscillates like a slow horseback ride. A bit like in The Sparrow (Vocal Version) the rhythm is soft, almost lascivious, with a sonic fauna which scatter ethereal chords in secret atmospheres. The Sparrow (Ambient Version) centers on a duel of French horns, both real and synthesized, with cavernous breaths that float like phantom threats in a much ambient structure. The Sparrow (Instrumental Version) begins with a more cacophonic approach, a bit like an incomplete orchestra trying to adjust its instruments. The instruments are French horns, synth layers with almost philharmonic aromas, and percussions which seek a tempo. And it's in a soft envelope of a down-tempo with variable rhythms that the mutation of ambient to rhythm takes place. And the duo Brückner & Everling has nothing to envy to those researchers of contemporary rhythms who drown their discoveries in a scarlet sonic fauna with a docile rhythm which jumps in the meshes of tasty sequences and piano lines as well as under the caresses of a French horn with so much melancholic breezes. It's quite unique.
Rather unique! That's what comes in mind to describe better this Detlev Everling and Michael Brückner's SPARROWS. The eclectic duet succeeds marvellously in uniting some antipodes of EM in an audacious album which leaves unmistakably these traces at the bottom of our eardrums. Whether it's with suave rhythms or ambiences to make twist a crazy spectre, this impressive sonic duel between the acoustics of a French horn and two synthesizers which bicker the imitation, while dropping some smooth dark phases, is one of the beautiful finds from SynGate which doesn't stop to amaze with an audacious artists' catalogue who are dedicated to the evolution of contemporary EM. Very good! I don't see how I can't recommend such an audacious and musical opus.
Sylvain Lupari (May 19h, 2014) ****½*
Available at SynGate Bandcamp