“An Ambient Side which is richer than the Techno Mix, this is an audacious journey in the lands of mixed styles and feelings”
Ambient Mix 62:42 1 Inverted Spring (Aes Dana) 6:07 2 They Own the Night (Merovee) 5:39 3 Dance of Death (Valanx) 6:05 4 Hyacinth (Claudio Prc) 5:10 5 Hunting The Black Eagle (Mod21) 6:54 6 La Guerre de tous Contre tous (Musicians With Guns) 6:00 7 Stratospheric Layers (Ennony) 6:06 8 Pressure Elements (Resoe) 8:29 9 Distant Shadows (Variant) 13:02 10 Spin (Kinosura) 7:25 11 Malefactor (Area) 6:07
12 Entonación Chilena (Atacama Mix-Deadbeat) 6:22 13 Cape May (Beat Pharmacy) 5:52 Techno Side 67:46 1 Paradoxical Escape (Kinosura)12:16 2 Hyacinth (Remodel) 6:22 3 Tone (Beat Pharmacy) 6:39 4 Aquilonia (Zzzzra) 6:36 5 Parabol (Arne Weinberg) 6:44 6 Entonación Chilena (Deadbeat) 6:03 7 Atmospheric Path (Ennony) 7:25 8 WTFM (Resoe) 7:57
9 Wanting (Area) 8:00 10 Reality in Numbers (Mod21) 7:52 11 Beyond Air (cv313) 11:00 12 A Call to Worship (Merovee) 7:23 13 Otherness (Aes Dana) 7:38
Ultimae Records – inre089 (2CD/DDL 24Bits 110:28) (Ambient & Techno)
I always wait for the new releases of the Lyon based label Ultimae Records with impatience. I know that we are far from the style Berlin School, but this label has the gift to create works which juxtapose the sound aestheticism in atmospheres stemming from the German movement but in a psychedelic vision which amazes from album to album. The last in line is this 2nd compilation of this year and which is mixed by Focal, sound's name of the DJ Arnaud Galoppe, who proposes here 2 compilations in one with a CD of ambient music and another CD of Techno mix. And as in the accustomed, the music is selected in the court of Ultimae Records and its artists such as Aes Dana, Kinosura, Area, Deadbeat, Claudio Prc to name but a few. An audacious exercise where the awakening between the ambient and Techno flows with pleasure, especially when the finale of the Ambient Mix didn't really find refuge to my ears. Also when Focal talks about ambient music he doesn't aim inevitably at the meditative side. We are very far from that! Inverted Spring is faithful to the Aes Dana's signature with these long drones which blow such as hollow breezes. Azure winds and percussive effects decorate this wall of hoarse breaths which floats with as much serenity as its heavy coat of darkness. Very lengthened pulsations liven up it dense ambient movement towards the point of the 3 minutes, shaping a slow rhythm which will eventually hatch with an arsenal of percussions, among which some splendid tremors of wooden baguettes, which will guide Inverted Spring towards a first phase of sound cacophony. We have here the essences of this CD of Ambient Mix, that is black winds mixed with more translucent effects and floating rhythms which scatter even inside titles. The only tangible evolution, because the 12 titles here are tied into a long sound river of 62 minutes, is this element of fusion of the sounds which makes raise a cacophonous approach by here and there and of which the peak will be Cape May. Only Spin is in the meditative genre. But in the meantime, there are good moments on POLARITY Ambient Side. They Own the Night is sculpted on the model of Inverted Spring but with more elements of nervous, hectic and spasmodic percussions through its evolution. Wrapped closely in layers of dark and hollow breezes, the Drums'n'Bass Dance of Death becomes very appealing. There are titles of pure lugubrious atmospheres such as Hyacinth and La Guerre De Tous Contre Tous which is accompanied by nice elements of Psybient on a soft rhythm. A rhythm which flows towards Stratospheric Layers. The Acid-House Press Elements wakes up us pretty roughly. Focal goes also in Steve Roach's Tribal Ambient style with 2 gorgeous tracks, Hunting The Black Eagle and Distant Shadows, which are by far the most beautiful moments on “Polarity Ambient Side”. The echoes of the delicate ringings of Malefactor forge a circular rhythm which awakes the dins of Entonación Chilena, nevertheless flooded in a storm of wintry winds, and of Cape May which is rather difficult to assimilate.
The Techno side is without history! Focal sticks 13 titles from Ultimae Records in order to make a long mosaic of rhythms which preserve the same intensity with rather conservative atmospheres. We are not in the EDM here, but well and truly into a soft Techno with beautiful percussive effects which will seduce certainly the followers dancing on a dancefloor. What holds attention here is this impression that POLARITY Techno Side is conceived for an evening of Rave Party enlightens of freshness and of cheerfulness. It's sober and energizing with all the sound decoration inherent to the genre. There is good Acid House and nice Drums'n'Bass along with those sorts of Dance hymns, as well as these ambient Techno where the stars seem within reach of fingers. And like in POLARITY Ambient Side, a velocity is getting on the pace from the last titles, be Reality in Numbers. And surprisingly, this intensity is in the atmospheres and the effects of noises which have set ablaze the finale of the ambient version of POLARITY. And a good DJ always knows how to fire the torpor of the dancers who stir like Zombies starving for air! With a thing which delights and which asks for an Encore from the dancers. A title like Otherness which makes me say that finally, Techno is not that bad! Sylvain Lupari (July 4th, 2017) ***½**
Available at Ultimae Records Bandcamp