“Mostly 30 years separate the first edition of Mindscapes to this remastered version and still the genius of Kosmos hasn't fade in time”
1 Mindscapes Part 1 (28:55) 2 Mindscapes Part 2 (24:04) 3 Mindscapes Part 3 (4:41) 4 Moonchild (15:14)
(CD 72:54) (V.F.)
(Retro Berlin School)
After Monument, it's the MINDSCAPES cassette that is the object of a reissue, supported by a remasterisation, by Ron Boots and which is released on his label Groove Unlimited. I don't know Patrick Kosmos that much, his music is very difficult to find. My friend Nick sent me Cosmic Resonance, which I listened to in the wake of Monument, reissued and remastered by Ron Boots as well. And I enjoyed more this MINDSCAPES which offers 3 long evolutive titles. Nice cosmic boleros that testify to the impact of Patrick Kosmos on the evolution of modern EM. Klaus Schulze fans will also be delighted to discover this album.
Cosmic tones radiate over the first seconds of Mindscapes Part 1. A layer of mist spreads its undulating shadow, where chirpings and arpeggios are dancing in a very cosmic setting. Patrick Kosmos liked to set his vision of the cosmos into his music and lhe iked to create this concept that he exploits fully on MINDSCAPES. Chords of keyboards singing like a very creative electronic nightingale adjust its tone and marvels the mists which float and drift like dandelion seeds drawn in a flurry of static winds. This is where I feel Klaus Schulze's vibe. The keyboard chords tinkle like in In Blue Serenade. But the thing is that MINDSCAPES was conceived around 87. The work of this introduction drifts to a black hole, where will be born the best minutes of this album. We are around Mirage and his melody whose glass arpeggios are spinning in a carousel with a speed slightly higher than that of this earworm melody in Crystal Lake. The flute tones that accompany this serenade also sound like Schulze from the Dig It era. In short, it's quite a piece of music that this Mindscapes Part 1! And he is not alone here. Mindscapes Part 2 is built in parallel with his big brother. In the sense that light chords hop, and their resonances weave a sound canvas where lower tones chords are dancing. A wave of bass spreads its vampiric veil, creating a slow illusory tempo that magnetizes our senses. It looks like a lunar procession with these jumping arpeggios that fix our listening in hypnosis mode. And only a few noises as unusual as attractive divert our attention momentarily. There is this flute which appears and whose short symphony evaporates when Mindscapes Part 2 reaches its 2nd stage around the 12 minutes. Morphic rhythm switches for a slightly livelier one. It sounds like the jerking of a machine which unties at the stowage point. Stars twinkle like chords of an electric piano which attract a celestial voice, and then the choir, in an unequal duel where tenderness and anger dissipate their emotions in a final embraced by orchestrations.
At the time, MINDSCAPES closed the books here!
But a first reissue was released in 2002 with a box of 11 CDs entitled Patrick Kosmos - The Chronicles. Mindscapes Part 3 was there and was presented as a composition dating from 2001. The music stands out from the vision of this album with a title built for a movie. She is intense with its harmonic orchestrations and almost acoustic chords and whose symbiosis can be hum or whistle as if by magic. And one says without stopping; I seem to have heard that somewhere. After 3 plays, we are clued to it for a while! This is a very catchy progressive New Age. Moonchild is the other jewel of MINDSCAPES. Composed around 88-89, this title appeared on a compilation entitled The Wending Works I. It was on a cassette tape which also included the music of Ron Boots and Walter Christian Rothe among others. Its introduction is woven into cosmic silk and its procession follows the model of the two long titles of MINDSCAPES, but with more velocity in the arpeggios’ tinkling. We hear faint explosions here and there, but without diverting the softness of the floating movement. The musicality imposes its presence with good orchestrations and a bass line that sounds so much like Klaus Schulze's Groove. The solos emerge after the 9 minutes, when the rhythm becomes more alive with the spasmodic impulses of sequences dancing like Chinese shadows. The solos take us to the sound sources of In Blue. This is a great track! Great like this reissue and remaster out of Groove and from Ron Boots' ears who presents to us another great album of Patrick Kosmos, of this tasty Belgian vision on the evolution of contemporary EM.
Sylvain Lupari (May 27th, 2019) ****¾*
Available at Groove Unlimited
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