“Unconditional fans of the first works of Jean-Michel Jarre, the soft beats and the music of 45 will find a way to captivate you”
1 The Beginning 6:36
2 Apala 7:33
3 Obsession 7:00
4 Reminiscence 4:20
5 Malouve 6:54
6 Poussière Cosmique 8:50
7 Fairy Night 3:49
8 Evidence 5:27
9 Light Summer 7:39
10 Indigo 6:32
(DDL 61:52) (V.F.)
(French School, Cosmic Rock)
It's always with pleasure that I go to the discovery of a new album from my dear friend Marc, aka MoonSatellite. And each time, I let myself get captivated by its ambient rhythms that run along the many corridors of cosmos. Unconditional fans of the first works of Jean-Michel Jarre, Oxygene to Magnetic Fields, the music of the French musician/synthesist will find a way to captivate you. 45 for the 45 years of my famous Lone Wolf! And this album is not a present he makes himself! It's a gift that he makes available in two versions on his Bandcamp page. The original version, which includes the percussions section, and a version without percussions that allows to better understand the work of the sequencer. An excellent initiative that unveils some little secrets of EM, at least for this French School so cosmically poetic. And whatever the versions, this 45 is at the greatness of what the Nantes synthesist has been offering us since 2009, with the release of Sequenzer - Volume 1.
Two synth pads with distinct tones embrace our ears by intertwining in the interstellar void until a sequence pulse delicately. The ambient rhythm of The Beginning is pecked by metal barbs, while maintaining its astral ascent. A climb that is diverted by percussions, including the famous ringing rattles, MS has explained me that he used the Korg Minipops to give this tone that made my delights in Oxygene 4 from you know who. So, an ascent deviated to a cosmic rock hovering surrounded by layers waltzing in a spheroidal corridor. The Beginning is the quiet opening of an album that hides beautiful spikes of emotion to give us goose bumps. And it starts with the percussive elements of Apala. They tinkle in a corridor seeded of sound effects until reaching its rhythmic base. Slow and languorous, Apala is buried in synth layers that flirt with a swarm of astral violins. The second part expels its chimerical violins to leave room for very good ethereal solos that still maintain the moods of 45 in a soft cotton that sways on a slow pace and resulting, for zombies stoned on THC. And always, these tails of rattlesnakes that tinkle from everywhere ... We hang immediately to the rhythm of Obsession, both for its structure as for its melody carved in opaline arpeggios. A line of crisp and crackling sequences decides to modify this more exciting course that the percussions and the percussive effects bring back in this wake of electronic rock for haunting melody as much obsessive that the air of extraterrestrial specter which waits backstage and goes front by borrowing the arpeggios design. Reminiscence is born from its sound broth to float comfortably in its placenta. This interlude of atmospheres is the bridge between the melodies of Obsession, which are almost identical in a structure which puts more value of solos of synth and effects of howling of wolf. One cannot remain insensitive while listening to Malouve.
The jingles of these arpeggios, fertilized in the interstices of obsession, become effectively an object of obsession and do the same work as the percussions, but in another dimension. A more emotional dimension that reaches its summit with Poussière Cosmique whose percussions get out of its cocoon of ambient music. The many synths of MoonSatellite multiply the effects with anesthetic mists, opaque layers and solos that pierce the senses. Solos that bring a moving touch with tunes and sharp twists turning into angelic voices that took me breathe away. This title, which unravels the impasses of intensity, nests on a nice hovering movement of the sequencer that percussions maintain in a sustained rhythmic vision. Fairy Night floats and drifts like Reminiscence but with more strength and intensity. It's also preparing our ears to the splendid Evidence, that almost took a tear away. Avoid if you are depressed! This title, built in the same mold as Obsession, highlights the depressing dimension of 45. As if the years of Lone Wolf would have happened in a factory of woes, a factory for souls in search of its equivalence. Light Summer totally overturns the vibes of the album with the most playful rhythmic structure of 45. It's good electronic rock, always a little ambient, which supports a more serene, more harmonious harmonic approach. Indigo completes this last MoonSatellite album with a motionless structure where a melody melts without tone or make-up but sweetly serene which sparkles and shines on the stationary bed of an ambient rhythm and without percussions. The layers that languorously intertwine, a new direction of the melody became vestige and the sustained pulsations of the sequencer are the mirages that will bewitch you even more with the 2nd CD. A CD made of sweets and tonal treats that can be heard in loops while lounging in the abandonment. A very nice album, my dear Marc.
Sylvain Lupari (August 15th, 2019) ****½*
Available at MoonSatellite Bandcamp