“Sequenced Feelings leads to predict the hatching of a beautiful artist who leaves us all the same a bit perplexed in front of his too long structures”
1 Sequenced Feelings-Part I 29:32 2 Sequenced Feelings-Part II 25:45 3 Sequenced Feelings-Part III 13:19 Nord Music
(DDL 68:36) (V.F.)
(Floating and sequencer-based EM)
Here's an album that was kind of lost under the mass of digital albums that I received, and which pleased me to find beneath the pile of digital files. It's within the framework of Rings of Fire's column that I remembered having another Nord album somewhere. I eventually found this SEQUENCED FEELINGS and I let myself seduced while reminding to me that there is a gap from more than 2 years between this 12th album of Nord and his gigantic Pendulum.
Some cold chirpings of arcade games nuanced with a juicy line of sequences and of its hypnotic minimalist spheroidal movement, Sequenced Feelings-Part I seizes our sense of hearing with all the charms, still unknown, of Nord. Synth layers, perfumed of Vangelis scents, overfly the movement, like a lighthouse watches waters at night, whereas another line of sequence staggers in a delicate spasmodic movement. The union of these two lines, as well as the addition of another line as harmonious as evanescent, reminds us the influence of Software on the music of Nord. Percussive jingles decorate this spherical structure that some percussions lead to a level of techno for zombies marinated in the scents of weed. And we fly in these structures of cybernetic rhythms built by Software of the Chip-Meditation times when the rhythm accentuates its presence by a good meshing of sequences which bind themselves to the new velocity of the sequenced movement which always tinkle of a harmonious air. The noises of arcade games get back to bring back Sequenced Feelings-Part I in its cocoon of atmospheres which watch for a possible sonic hatching. Buzzing strands escape like a big snake which crawl in a sound dew always soaked with a drizzle of prisms while layers of synth fly away and float as in a slow ballet for aircrafts. This ambiospherical moment lasts more or less 9 minutes. And when the rhythm gets reborn again, it grafts a spasmodic structure to these ambient braids. The sober percussions and the keen oscillations of the bass sequences won’t relaunch in a definitive way the rhythm of the finale of Sequenced Feelings-Part I which slumbers slowly on a bubbling movement always under the threshold of the endorphin.
It's this finale that influences the structure of Sequenced Feelings-Part II which pounds constantly under larvas of synth and of the short attempts of dreamy solos formed by nervous fingers. What is charming here are these percussions of rattlers type which go and come on this structure of which the perfumes of a vague psychedelic movement are roaming in the atmospheres. The finale is clearly more cheerful than that of Sequenced Feelings-Part II and each of both titles suffer from lengths. But we feel that the talent is there! Shorter and clearly more incisive and also more attractive to the ears, Sequenced Feelings-Part III always offers this spheroidal approach which lives on a beautiful meshing of percussions and those crisscrossed sequences lines. Acute ringings skip from an ear to another, from a loudspeaker to the other one, while leaving a sound trail between its passages. This static movement, which can be described as jumps of hares on an earth of fire, arrives at the door of 3 minutes with jerky pulsations which weaken their resonances on a new bed of sequences and its keys which glitter in a motionless ornament. Sequences, pulsations and percussions! Everything is in position for a structure of rhythm inviting for the fingers and charming for the ears with these crystalline layers and these breaths of synths under forms of solos which add colors to this minimalist approach which will become clearly livelier in its 2nd phase. A very good title in the repertoire of Nord!
Two and a half years later and 6 albums farther, Nord has earned an enviable reputation in the EM planet of the floating style. At its time of release, one would has said that SEQUENCED FEELINGS leads to predict the hatching of a beautiful artist who leaves us all the same a bit perplexed in front of his too long structures of which the lack of nuances erodes the minimalist effect. There are good moments, as others slightly too long. And the talent is there! It will find our ears with a couple of albums always a little bit uneven, but which gradually will bring us to wonderful albums, such as Mare Nubium, Pendulum and, lately, Rings of Fire. For fans of Jean-Michel Jarre and Software. Even Klaus Schulze and Vangelis!
Sylvain Lupari (March 24th, 2017) *****
Available at Nord Bandcamp