“Pleonasms is another fantastic voyage through times when the charms of the analog were competing the coldness of the digital”
1 Pleonasms 4:12 2 Fluctuation 12:27 3 Calybration 7:58 4 Atemporal Dispersion 11:19 5 Soliloquy 6:42 6 Cool Sands of Vermillion 16:11 Perge Music
(DDL 59:00) (V.F.) (Berlin School)
Perge is sticking to its guns! Having dusted the old recordings dating of the 70's and the 80's with Aural Coefficients Within a Fractal Plane, appeared last February, the English duet which was one of the most important in the virtual universe of EM to the 70's through the 90's, gets back on the train in order to present us another recording which was one of the most popular on the market of bootleggers (who did not hear The Undulated Soundtrack For Phantasy' and 'Space & Sfears?); PLEONASMS. I adore the double-sense of this title which is the 9th official album of Perge and which was recorded at the famous Preston Guild Hall and then at the Brighton Dome in England. These two places were also known to have been the witnesses of electrifying performances in November 80, for the Guild Hall, and in March 86, for the Brighton Dome, by none other than Tangerine Dream.
The title-track rouses our ears already in appetite with a heavy introduction loaded of whirlwinds of cosmic waves where from emanate thousands of bubbles of oxygen and thin lines of voices without souls. These effects of electronic ambiences reach a good level of intensity as the broth which guide Pleonasms pours into Fluctuation. The noises of crowd become rumors while the sounds of gong announce the awakening of this concert given at the Preston Guild Hall. The atmospheres remain dark when lost chords fall. A rather lively line of sequences copies the rhythm of a train which spits its pace under the itches of the small elytrons of metal. We are at the right place! Rolling of percussions get in at the same time as the synth layers, molded in harmonious riffs, and some very airy solos. Fluctuation becomes then in permutation of rhythm. The train mislays its sequences in another more nervous line and the percussions become more steady. Other synth layers are crossing the atmospheres, welcoming in their ethereal flights some very nice solos where effects of flutes and of foggy voices pepper our imagination, otherwise our desire to hear those effects. And quite slowly, under these layers and riffs which sound strangely like Tangerine Dream (to well situated the reader), Fluctuation goes towards a finale which inhales its opening begun in Pleonasms. For those who are eager of comparisons, and there are, Calybration is molded in the ashes of Calymba Caly but with a better sound quality. Perge does a very good dust removal from this classic where a line of sequences rises and falls, drawing a hypnotic spiral which is convenient to some very good synth solos. Sequences in the form of castanets, that we hear for the first time, are completely delicious for my ears always starving for novelties and for additional sound effects.
Effects and synth twists lead us to an unedited track played during this concert, the very good Atemporal Dispersion. A movement of sequences goes up and goes down, binding itself at a meshing of bass pulsations and electronic percussions. The atmospheres are of silk with a load of synth layers and of harmonies stylized under the forms of solos, while a keyboard takes the lead for the real harmonious portion. The chords are sharp and are like a blade on a rhythm which quivers in its structure of vertical spiral which hiccups in series. Awesome! Little by little the large amount of effects and other percussions are redirecting Atemporal Dispersion towards a more cosmic electronic rock phase with an approach which has doubtless influenced the Tangerine Dream of the 80's. The solos are wonderful and flutter like singings of astral mermaids on a structure as much lively as immensely dense and which at times reveals the influences of Calymba Caly. A piano and a very melancholic synth cover the finale, Matthew Stringer settles down at the piano and offers us the very moving Soliloquy: a small jewel which drew its delicacy from Tangram and which doubtless has served as inspiration for the superb Song of the Whale Pt II… to Dusk of the album Underwater Sunlight. This piano stretches its melody beyond the borders of Cool Sands of Vermillion, where a surprising fusion between Vermillion Sands and Cool Breeze of Brighton waits for our ears as much disbeliever as fascinated by Matthew Stringer's guitar and these solos of Graham Getty's synth which spin like metallic fireflies on a fiery pattern of a hyper active sequences. Great track!
PLEONASMS? It's another fantastic voyage through times and at high volume, we dive back in these great years when the charms of the analog were competing the coldness of the digital.
Sylvain Lupari (October 30th, 2016) *****
Available at Perge Bandcamp