“This is a great album which seems stunningly getting out of a Tangerine Dream's studio hidden in a parallel universe”
1 Temple of Trajan 6:47
2 Drusenfluh 2:41
3 Schesaplana 7:45
4 Zimbaspitze 9:21
5 Vorder Grauspitz 8:00
6 Naafkopf 10:49
7 Sulzfluh 1:38
8 Falknis 5:23
9 Dyad 12:18
10 Sassauna 12:31
(DDL 77:18) (V.F.)
(Berlin School)
There was a time when legend spoke of it. Over the years this legend, like memories, faded into oblivion until finally the first notes were brought to our ears with the introduction of Temple of Trajan. The legend in question is this famous concert that Tangerine Dream would have given on the night of January 31, 1981, during the eclipse of the solar and lunar stars of the planet DYAD, under the big tent of the Dröing stadium. A concert in another space-time where each note seems offbeat and where each melody works alongside that composed for our system. The delicate Temple of Trajan follows in the wake of the opening of Quixote Part I, better known as the Palace of Dreams. We feel a more melancholic Johannes Schmoelling who brings nuances in his chords, wonderfully reflecting the fragility of the parallel universes that Tangerine Dream has ride without scruples. But by the way, do you believe in this story?
Perge is the new darling of social media that flirts with EM, especially the music of Tangerine Dream. Except that we must not get carried away by this wave of fanaticism and think that Perge is just a carbon copy of the Dream. It's far beyond a simple imitation with a sarcastic vision and all the talent of Paul Lawler with his Arcane. Composed of Matthew Stringer, synthesizer, piano and guitars, and of Graham Getty, on sequencers, Perge only pays tribute to the legendary Berlin trio in its most electronic and melodic skin, that of the Franke, Froese & Schmoelling years. And DYAD is a concert imagined and performed live while respecting this electrifying magic Tangerine Dream's concerts in the early 80's. And throughout this imaginary studio concert, the listener and the fan are squarely immersed in the universe of this Tangerine Dream with 10 compositions which are the mirrors of titles as electric as Undulation, Force Majeure or yet Silver Scale. Mirror because the compositions of DYAD are molded in known and especially unknown territories of the mythical German trio, a little like if the duo Stringer & Getty had secretly drunk a horn of plenty forgotten during this famous concert in Trajan's Palace to land on the other side of the mirror, in our space-time, with a superb bootleg which has nothing to envy to those we already all know.
After a floating bridge, forged in a very musical synth on Drusenfluh, the stormy sequences of Schesaplana lead us to an undulatory rhythmic whirlwind with sequences of which the curt flow traces a convulsive rhythm which gallops with a contagious frenzy alongside the minimalist rattlings of the percussions. This rhythm which overlaps the metallic plains of the Dream in Force Majeure is carefully coated by a synth with aromas as orchestral as melodious, bringing the best of both worlds known of Tangerine Dream at that time. Respectful of these structures of rhythms and atmospheres that rendered these legendary concerts, Perge alternates hard rhythms with melodies within Zimbaspitze which starts with an atmospheric intro before embracing a melodic rhythm and concluding with a heavy pace drowned in sumptuous synth solos. Molded in the ashes of Calymba Caly, Vorder Grauspitz flows with more fluidity, without denying its origin. After an intro charmed by the fluttered breaths of Tangram, Naafkopf sinks into a heavy rhythm which swirls all around the melodic framework of Tangram with thundering sequences and intensely lyrical and poignant synth lines. We could believe to hear a first draft of this flagship title of a new musical direction of Tangerine Dream. Sulzfluh and Falknis offer us new material with a slow rhythmic evolution which starts from the twisted and reverberant breaths of Sulzfluh to end in the heavy undulating rhythms of Falknis. Rhythms built on sequences from which the arrhythmic palpitations were girdled with percussions which flap in the harmonious and metallic breezes of these silvery synth lines. Dyad is a digest of all the rhythmic and harmonic approaches of the Dream of the 80's and 81's with agile fluttering sequences and heavy synths with iridescent membranes whose apocalyptic breaths die in a finale filled by Tangram/Quixote aromas. This title which fuses cooing harmonies on lead beads crowns a magical concert that the magic of today restores to us with a sulfurous reminder drawn from the coat of arms of Silver Scale in Sassauna, where Matthew Stringer gratifies the absent audience of a solo by a guitar and its biting riffs.
No Perge is not Tangerine Dream! Even if we firmly believe in it, so much the fiction catches up with reality. And whether purists as well as die-hard fans agree or disagree, Tangerine Dream will continue to live through this cult that its most ardent admirers dedicate to it. Whether through works with absent subtleties or others downright more direct, the magic of the Dream will always serve as a bulwark for artists who judge that its phases were abandoned without everything being fully exploited. DYAD is full of music that the fans of the most prolific period from the Berlin trio would have hope to be timeless. This is a great album inspired with the greatest respect from a cult trio which has given us so much in such a short time that it is just normal to believe that there are remains somewhere in another galaxy.
Sylvain Lupari (July 21st, 2012) ****½*
Available at Perge Bandcamp