NOTHING BUT NOISE: Existence Oscillation Present (2017)

“A great follow-up to the 1st part, EOP offres huge patterns of harmonic and rhythmic oscillating loops that will find its way to your tastes of variable forms of EM”

1 diSchotomy 11:40 2 121212 10:16 3 Ostinato 7:54 4 Prophecy 9:36 5 Torch 8:43 Wool-E Discs ‎– WED009

(CD/DDL 48:06) (V.F.) Dark Ambient & Experimental Berlin School)

Muted impulses kick off an album that will nail you up to your headphones, if not your speakers. They coo with an air that will make its way to the bottom of the eardrums by constantly adding various sonic elements that fatten the waltz of oscillating loops waltz of diSchotomy. First, sequences! They are grafted little by little, adding nets of discord to oscillating lines that come and go in a rhythmic motorik scheme. The base remains harmonious and continues to roll its electronic refrain on a carpet of stubborn riffs. And the first sonorous filaments stand out. At first sight, one feels a division between two sequences of movements which reflect their oppositions. The effects of echo and reverberation sculpt a music without respite and which turns constantly on its oscillatory axis. This is the principle Manuel Göttsching on a Kraftwerk mathematical rhythmic approach. If one phase remains deliciously musical, the other pushes the nail of the deformation with shadows of distortions whereas gradually, diSchotomy goes towards a percussive intensity. Apart from the sequences that follow the melodious arc, others roll in loops or flutter while releasing rebellious keys that alter the perfect sequenced imperfections. Attractive, the game of sequencers invites percussions that gradually turn into a horde of Japanese percussionists. They hammer with lead in their arms an oscillating phase while the other still flows this chorus that takes an unsuspected freedom with tendrils as acrobatic as harmonics that demystify this game of rhythmic spirograph and its titanic algorithmic rotations. Second part of the Existence Oscillation trilogy from Nothing but Noise, eXistence Oscillation prEsent starts very strong! After the storm of diSchotomy, 121212 follows with a swarm of pulsations and nervous sequences which evolves on the same principle of reverberations and echo. This stationary electronic rhythm basis takes the shape of a jerky structure with more spasmodic phases and other ones more in dance mode. The synths are in harmonic tendrils mode and launch lines that coo with tunes that come down from the speakers with this approach of Tomita in Snowflakes are Dancing. Less circumscribed in a minimalist setting, 121212 proposes changes in its development, keeping the listener constantly in alert mode. This is the biggest strength of this album which constantly takes unexpected turns.

In a context of exploration of the oscillations frontiers, Ostinato takes all of its meaning. A pulsation is at the origin of everything! It hops and its shadow finely attached to its echo makes it a stable structure on which is grafted a line of more musical sequences and experiments in the tones of the synths. The shorter title of eXistence Oscillation prEsent is also the one that caught my interest at the first listening. If the rhythm is also very headstrong, its ornaments are as stubborn as they are very seductive, thanks to a series of more fragile chords that jump with a more harmonic vision as well as enveloping synth layers which are sometimes tributary of spectral chants. Prophecy takes also a similar pattern but in a more dance version. The synth multiplies here various oscillating loops on a music whose charm comes around the 7th minute with a violoncello to which one martyrize the strings. The opening of Torch reminds me a bit of Plastikman's acoustic rhythms. Knocks of percussion, less powerful than in diSchotomy, come and go on a structure whose flow of sequences gives an impression of a collection of continuous riffs, a little like in the structure of Prophecy by the way. In fact, the elements of ambiances and the discrete filaments of harmonies are distinguished with a vague similarity between Torch and diSchotomy, because of the synth lushes which evaporate an ambient dimension, and Ostinato, for its stubbornness rhythmic, while the scenery turns on various oscillating loops and nicely done effects of percussions. The whole thing gives the taste to re-hear this album which is located literally well in its place as a 2nd part of a fascinating and captivating series on the roles of oscillations in the evolution of modern EM. Stronger than Existence Oscillation Past and, rightly, slightly weaker than Existence Oscillation (possible) Future! But in the end, the Existence Oscillation's trilogy is worth all the weight of its gold! Sylvain Lupari (September 17th, 2018) **** ¼*

SynthSequences.com

Available at Nothing But Noise Bandcamp