“The main strength of Cosmoromantics is the way Moonbooter handles his sequencing patterns”
1 Edge of Sanity 8:57
2 Spirit of Time 7:50
3 Flashback 7:39
4 Let Freedom Ring 6:28
5 Elnath 6:47
6 Cosmonaut Leonow 7:20
7 Endogenious 7:26
8 Dancing in Ocean 7:52
9 Broken Silence 7:19
10 Fly with Me 9:08
(CD-r/DDL 76:45) (V.F.)
(EDM with a good zest of Berlin School)
COSMOROMANTICS is the 4th opus of the Cosmo series that Moonbooter has begun in 2009 with Cosmoclimax. The basic idea is to always unite approaches of more or less wild Electronica, which is filled up of cosmic elements, to the genesis of the Berlin School style. Being an off-side project, COSMOROMANTICS is the 2nd album of Moonbooter to appear in 2014. I underline the fact because some beautiful fragrances of the very seducing and also quite romantic Still Alive are perfuming this cosmic bet of Bernd Scholl where tones and sound effects of the Russian spatial program are roaming among soft melodies which moderate the atmospheres sometimes boosted by elements of trance music. But the fans of Berlin School are not left lost in the woods, as prove it certain tracks very tempting for those who like the genre.
And it begins with Edge of Sanity and its skeleton of sequences which waves and winds all along the slender and sinuous synth line, rather cosmic, of its intro. The structure inhales a phase of ambient rhythm and this even with the wet pulsations which liven up constantly the dance a bit dislocated of this long carcass of invertebrate. Some ambient techno? Possible while the rhythm shows its nuances with good variants in the knocks of the pulsations and of their echoes which make boom-boom in the rays of the long sonic beams of the synth. That starts things rather well and it's softer than savage while the movement and the tone of the sequencing pattern which is very good by the way all over the album, reminds me of Tangerine Dream. And it's even more true with Spirit of Time and of its White Eagle kind of melody which hangs onto a soft pulsatory and ambient rhythm. We stay in the field of lunar rhythm with Flashback and its fascinating melody played on a piano which turns into a kind of guitar and of which the shadows sing with a fluty breath. The fineries of this minimalist melody forge an attractive earworm whereas that Moonbooter guides the destinies of his album towards a clearly wilder tendency. The pulsations, a bit organic here, are more accentuated and the sequences flicker the cosmic atmospheres with more nervousness. Let's say that things really start to heat up with Let Freedom Ring and its approach of dancefloor on which the words of Martin Luther King are recited with a voice-over which awaken in me this passion of David Byrne from the Talking Heads. The rhythm is heavy and incisive with a meshing of sequences cut in stroboscopic lines which go and come to peck at percussions and at pulsations which are avid to break up our eardrums.
Elnath is a beautiful ballad which seems to be taken out from the shadows of Flashback. Here as everywhere in this album, the assortment in the Bernd Scholl's sequencing is simply gorgeous. The lively and solid Cosmonaut Leonow, adorned of its techno armor and of its cosmic voices, is a good example of the Berlin School movements of sequences which circulate well in an approach of techno. The fusion of the antipodes is less aggressive than we could think. On Endogenious, the sequences fall like snowflakes. Manhandled by the weight of the percussions and their pulsatory shadows, they are frivolous and flutter with beautiful and deep oscillations. The movement is so attractive for the ear that we forget this melody a bit Arabian which floats in the background to move in a cosmic cacophony. The strength of this sound saga that is the Cosmo series from Moonbooter, and I would say it for his music generally, is this wealth in nuances which decorate his rhythms and his atmospheres. Melodies such as Flashback, Elnath and Endogenious while the heavy and striking rhythms like Dancing in Ocean, which spin like a cerebral exhilaration, are simply bewitching as well as catchy. Techno or dance music like this; I could take it anytime! Broken Silence is a good down-tempo rather ethereal where the perfumes of Tangerine Dream roam but in another approach than Spirit of Time. It's more lively, kind of TDI years which merge with the Atomic Seasons saga, but that remains rather cerebral. And what a nice fluty melody which nests here. It's rather surprising all the same how this style of Tangerine Dream which was thoroughly criticized passes admirably well here. And Moonbooter is going to conclude his last album with a furious rhythm. Fly with Me is a Rave anthem with a beat as lively as heavy which swirls at the speed of those stroboscopic flashes that flood a monstrous dancefloor on a Saturday night. You're going to sweat here!
The music of Moonbooter is the proof that the Berlin School style fits very well within Electronica. Although COSMOROMANTICS is more aerial than cruelly dance, the fusion between the soft and ambient rhythms to elements of stroboscopic dances and Rave is very attractive and passes very well in the ears for the lovers of both styles. And I insist about this vision of Bernd Scholl in his sequencing patterns. It's undoubtedly the strength of his album. This and its slightly variable moods in his beats. I quite liked that and I have caught myself turning the volume loud for a track as crazy as Fly with Me, as much as Spirit of Time which is going to please for sure those who devoured the Dream Mixes saga from Jerome Froese. To discover...
Sylvain Lupari (July 1st, 2015) *****
Available at MellowJet Records