PERGE: Green Dessert (2014)

“Although it surfs on the moods of Tangerine Dream's analog years, Green Dessert breathes of the same originality as their splendid Dyad”

1 Inconsequence 20:35

2 Cyclical 14:39

3 Movements of a Divisionary 9:04

4 Bronsium Echoes 11:04

Perge Bandcamp

(DDL/CD-r 55:23) (V.F.)

(Retro and New Berlin School)

An undulated synth line is floating like a cloud of mist, bringing with her some other lines of which the ambient reflections juxtapose together in a glistening meditative symbiosis. A delicate flute pierces this fog filled of metallic drizzles. Its chant, however frail it is, rises beyond the sonic cumulus, lulling even more the dreams of the dreamer who tries to know what do Inconsequence sounds like. At the very least its intro. Something like the music of Tangerine Dream's own Green Desert or yet the era of Encore. Birds' chirpings decorate these seraphic ambiences while the synth lines are getting more nasal. A structure of rhythm, as hesitating as timid, makes skip some delicate sequences of which the stealthily approach gives the excitement of the rhythm to percussions and at their knocks felted of cosmic gas. Superb floating solos are singing and blows more fluty airs over a structure which gradually takes an undulatory rhythmic flight. We swim in the full years when the analogue, and its rhythms built on imagination, used to amaze each time. Although knit in the stitches of Tangerine Dream's memories, this era between Peter Baumann and Johannes Schmoelling, Inconsequence continuous its evolution on whom get grafted a seraphic choir. So, their oneiric chants enchant a thick cloud of synth lines with colors as heavy and slow, as its rhythm in perpetual hypnotic rotation.

One should not see, nor hope, in this Perge's GREEN DESSERT for a copy of the same work from Tangerine Dream. Although this last album of Perge surfs on the ambiences of the analog years of the mythical trio, which is completely new compared to the first works of the English duo, this last album of Matthew Stringer and Graham Getty breathes the same originality as the superb Dyad album. Obviously when we look at the cover and that we take knowledge of the genesis, we can only smile at this very satirical wink which surrounds the mysteries of the real Green Desert. But are we really in these lands? Let's hear it! After its ambient introduction, Cyclical exhibits a rather digital rhythm à la Cool Breeze of Brighton. Matthew Stringer goes there with very good solos that are very personal to him. And yes, it makes you want to immerse yourself in the wild ambiences of Parisian Dreams! On the other hand, Movements of a Divisionary takes us squarely into the twisted moods of Movements of a Visionary from the album Phaedra. It's like seeing your reflection through a mirror with a tangled face. There is only the piano passage, which is stripped of its stringy envelope even if the melody remains sibylline. Bronsium Echoes picks up where the circular but increasing rhythm and the virgin harmonies of Inconsequence have left us. And slowly the rhythm misleads its keys in morphic envelopes which recall to me the dreamy analog years of Neuronium with Chromium Echoes. That shows how Perge can diversify both its style and its approach, that it's also able to flirt with both analog and digital tones and that above all this duo is able to surprise and charm despite all the controversy and the too easy etiquette that some of us would like to put on Perge.

Sylvain Lupari (September 2nd, 2014) ****½*

SynthSequences.com

Available at Perge Bandcamp