“Once again Remy offers us an album where harmonies and melodies survive to structures at once dark and romantic”
1 Overture 5:53
2 Belief 11:16
3 The Traveller (Part 1) 10:24
4 Silent Conversations 7:53
5 Sinfonia Senza Percussione (Part 2) 15:09
6 Sinfonia Senza Percussione (Part 3) 9:42
7 MMIX a.D.11:18
8 Requiem 5:58
(CD/DDL 77:33) (V.F.)
(Minimalist Berlin School)
Recorded during various concerts given in the Grotto of St. Bavokerk between 2007 and 2010, as part of a book fair, THE GREAT CHURCH TRILOGY respects Remy's signature with music imbued of mysticism and mystery. It's a very beautiful album with ambiences and atmospheres as nocturnal as cosmic which floats between our two hemispheres like music with the contrasts of a poetry without words. Music forged within a world of fantasies, with a thousand dreams of a dreamer unsatisfied by the power of his illusions.
Recorded during the very first concert, on November 10th, 2007, Overture and Belief are 2 tracks which are linked and drag us in Remy's heavy nightly atmospheres. A big tenebrous organ with layers floating such as spectres at night is opening Overture. The layers fly and roam with fine modulations which are propelled by the delicate impulse of a bass line. A bass which drops more edgy chords, guiding a spiral of crystal clear and twinkling chords swirling like a carousel of glockenspiels among heavy and bass metallic pulsations. The synth is as much lyrical as dramatic and weaves a sinister ambiance with layers and pads which float and sigh around tones of organ from the darkness. The introduction of Belief is garnished of those hatched puffs which breathe furtively, crossing more ethereal synth pads which move with a bass line to muffled pulsations and fine crystal clear arpeggios. An intro moulded in the shadow of Overture but which becomes more musical with a progression in the rhythm, initiated by fine percussions which slam under discreet synth solos. Recorded the year after, on November 15th, 2008, The Traveller (Part 1) is a good minimalist work starting with heavy drum rolls which free fine zigzagging waves and a soft romantic piano. A piano from which the series of minimalist notes shapes a beautiful night-melody which turns and drops more melodious notes in the stride of a tenor’s fat voice and discreet ghostly breezes. Very beautiful, this synth voice switches into delicate romantic and spectral breezes. She floats over a piano with more harmonious notes and over percussions of which the arrhythmic beats increase the intensity of The Traveller (Part 1), whereas fine teetering solos float and sway on the soft union of voices and the piano. After the wonderful Silent Conversations (see EoD), Sinfonia Senza Percussione pushes us even more in the night owl's blackness of Remy who takes now a little more cosmic tangent.
The 2009 concert had to be postponed because of Remy's son birth. In place, the recordings were broadcasted in the Grote of St.Bavokerk. These recordings were replayed in concert during the performance of November 13th, 2010 of which the next tracks were performed. A symphony without percussions, Sinfonia Senza Percussione Part 2 comes out under a cosmic sky where sparkle stars like in the good analog years of Klaus Schulze. Streaks and threadlike synth layers with tones of violins are floating besides plaintive solos which roam among the discreet singings of a cosmic choir. Far off, we hear fine crystalline arpeggios coiled in a fine wave-like spiral. Arpeggios which cross other limpid chords, drawing a light sequential movement revolving under nice violin strata and solos of a synth always so dark. This delicate spiralled impulsion dances under foggy layers of a synthesized violin which also frees fine twisted solos, guiding this cosmic track towards Sinfonia Senza Percussione Part 3. It's a track as much ambient without sequences where notes of piano roam among cosmic winds and hootings, creating a surrealist ambiance for a melody which tries to pierce a fossilized veil. Superb, MMIX a. D. swirls such as the carousels of those good old musical boxes, taking back a bit the sequential movement of Sinfonia Senza Percussione Part 2. Except it's more intense here with crystal clear chords which spin more deeply while evolving on an ascending tangent. A mellotron synth frees a soft iridescent mist and strings of a quixotic violin caress the rotation of this great sequenced spiral which is accompanied by a discreet choir and slamming percussions / pulsations which swirl and flit around this very good circular movement. And then choirs, violins and percussions are winding and hammering with more vivacity, whereas that long and sinuous fluty synth solo replace the fluty winds in order to plunge MMIX a. D. in a powerful rotary rhythm which lessens in the breezes of a finale which goes up to the intro of Requiem, a slow and ambient track where a piano releases its notes among dense strata of a powerful mellotron synth.
Once again Remy offers us an album where harmonies and melodies survive to structures at once dark and romantic, where choirs and fanciful violins throw veils of mysteries which suit so well the architecture of medieval structures as those of the Great Church of Haarlem. There are wonderful ambiances and melodies around THE GREAT CHURCH TRILOGY an album which gets a bit closer to structures of his famous Exhibition of Dreams and plunges us into a universe filled with a romanticism with all the colors of an unlimited imagination.
Sylvain Lupari (September 23th 2011) *****
Available at Desert Island Music