“Moonbooter wears superbly his two hats by blending the EDM of his Cosmo series to his vision of Berlin School”
1 Simply Ethereal 7:43 2 Drop 7:13 3 Oscillation 6:57 4 The Greatest Mystery 6:31 5 Harmonic Breaks 4:45 6 Pure Natural 4:05 7 Pan Tau 8:14 8 Earth Two 6:45 9 Dance with Overtones 7:56 10 Romantic in Space 7:01 MellowJet Records | cdr-mb1601 (CD-r/DDL 67:09) (V.F.) (EDM, E-Rock, Berlin School)
A sound wave coming from the darkness climbs the curves of the nothingness, throwing a dark veil that some soft robotics pulsations eventually hunted. Chords get grafted in this pulsatory movement, as well as other organic pulsations (we would say kisses of a huge octopus) and other sequences which flicker such as fireflies in a long too tube narrow for their wings. There are also other synthesized waves which wave in the background, giving a sound depth as much rich as very diversified to the introduction of Simply Ethereal which tries to bind itself to these rhythms of electronic dances which are the bearing of the Cosmo series from Moonbooter. Then comes a soft ethereal movement where the tears of synth meditate like sighs of violins, laying the harmonious foundations of the music. And always in the background, these sequences which get free from their tubular prison to draw wave motions. And the rhythm explodes slowly after the point of the 3 minutes. Such as aimed by Bernd Scholl, the melody stays in the foreground with beautiful capers which bind their airs with the soft staccato arrangements while the pulsations and the sequences will go out with more of biting into the 3rd phase of Simply Ethereal. This first title of COSMOHARMONICS is rather representative of the ambiences of this last Moonbooter album which is less wild than its predecessor but stills offers very good structures of electronic dance music (EDM).
Like the circular rhythmic pattern of Drop and its continual chassé-croisé of sequence lines which crisscross its keys sometimes voracious and sometimes more harmonious. The effect of the vocoder adds a cybernetic Kraftwerk touch to a music which eventually softened its rhythmic vision in order to let grow movements of very harmonious sequences while the synth throws some rather appealing solos with Arabian airs which seduce even these slow layers of astral violins. The union of both worlds is more than attractive here. Built on the same model as Simply Ethereal, Drop proposes 3 phases which present a light increase of the rhythm and of the moods. The same goes for Dance with Overtones where the Berlin School model and ambient music are going adrift between these phases towards a moderate Électronica. Here the synth makes very Vangelis, for the effects, while the harmonious solos carry the Moonbooter seal. But the rhythmic violence will not reach that of Oscillation which is a real hymn to the EDM movement and those Dance & Trances of Saturday evening for these collective hyper-active dances. If we like the genre (I find that done properly, even if it's not my music style), Harmonic Breaks is going to seduce us. Even if less violent, its cosmic envelope leads us to another level of dance. Pan Tau, one of the very good titles of the genre that Moonbooter ever composed, proposes also some very good EDM. Sequences, muffled pulsations and effects of chirping add to a frivolous heaviness with very beautiful lines of harmonies which are also intrusive as the arrangements. It's this kind of EDM that we listen to more than we dance on. COSMOHARMONICS is also the first album of the Cosmo series which swings between the universes of dance and the one more electronic than Bernd Scholl proposes outside this series.
The Greatest Mystery is the first title to show this fact. After a beautiful intro embroidered around romance, some very harmonious sequences lay harmonious bases full of Asian perfumes The rhythm extricates itself with a hesitating approach before biting our senses with a heaviness and a lasciviousness arisen from sober percussions and a good bass line and its sizzling shadows. It's a very good morphic down-tempo and the main harmony digs a first rendezvous with the collection of musical itches in this album. Bernd Scholl sits down to the piano to present us the very romantic and melancholic Pure Natural. It's doubtless one of the quietest titles that I heard from Moonbooter. It's a very beautiful moment of respite before the boiling, and very creative, Pan Tau. Earth Two belongs to the heavy rhythm and harmonious section of the album. The arrangements, as well as the slow layers of ambient rhythm, will undoubtedly please to fans of Jean-Michel Jarre. No matter the genres, each album of Moonbooter hides a small pearl. Romantic in Space is the one here. Circular, with its stroboscopic momentums of sequences, the rhythm is built on a muddle of lively percussions and sequences which also scatter soft filets of harmonies of which the airs coated of astral violins find a permanent place at the bottom of our eardrums. What a beautiful piece of music putted in an envelope of down-tempo slower than morphic. And what a beautiful album of Moonbooter who succeeds marvelously to carry his two hats, his two sonic signatures on the same album where EDM will never have been so inviting than here.
Sylvain Lupari (July 9th, 2016) *****
Available at MellowJet Records