“The melodious universe of Robert Kalyos stays always within the reach of all ears”
1 Rush of Time (Part 1-3) 15:04
2 Slow Motion 4:07
3 Froesernity 12:12
4 Night of Thoughts 3:36
5 Morpheus Dunes 10:33
6 Timeless 8:14
7 The Wave Save the King 6:11
8 The Last Horizon 4:05
(DDL 64:05) (V.F.)
(Melodious Berlin School)
The melodious universe of Robert Kalyos is within the reach of all ears. Since Cosmopolis in 2021, the musician-synthesist from Verona, Italy, has been producing catchy tracks while playing within the parameters of a slightly more progressive electronic music (EM). If you like a melodic style with a touch of romance and structured arrangements that will give you chills in your soul, this is an artist that I strongly recommend. THE PATH OF THE WHOLE is in every way in line with his style. This new album-download of RK is dedicated to the great names of the EM scene who passed away recently. These names have largely influenced and dictated the style and textures of the Italian musician music. We can find many essences of Edgar Froese and Vangelis, notably in the arrangements, in this album where winks to the universes of Klaus Schulze and Mark Shreeve can also be heard.
This album-tribute to the great names of yesterday begins with a heavy veil of sound resonances on which bounce and tinkle chords that a keyboard scatters with parsimony. The panorama intensifies with blades and tears of synth whose azure and scarlet colors stigmatize harmonious crevices. Already, the musical perfumes of a nostalgic Vangelis invade our ears. Throughout the ambient and processional structures of this album, Robert Kaylos integrates modulations, subtle as well as frank, which give impetus to the rhythms as well as to the veils of the ambient elements that structure the processional marches. We find them in the first segment of Rush of Time (Part 1-3) and they lead us to its rhythmic flowering around the 8th minute. This rhythm is made of sonic swirls that roll in loops under the orchestral blasts of the synths. A pulsating bass-sequence acts as a metronome while another line of the sequencer revitalizes the rhythm to which are grafted some sober electronic percussions. The longest track of THE PATH OF THE WHOLE becomes then a good electronic rock hardly faster than slow where some very good synth solos are heard. Let's say that it's a nice introduction to an album that has not finished surprising us, a bit like the progression of Rush of Time (Part 1-3) that ends in a real creative and catchy electronic rock. This track is missing minutes! Short and melodic, Slow Motion follows with a slow rhythm that is in line with the meaning of its title. A subtly heavy rhythm that is hammered by sober percussions and carried away in a delicate spiral that the synth weaves with its arrangements. The keyboard lets float a beautiful melody that quietly increases its emotional intensity. The whole reminds me of Synergy's melodious orchestral odes. Froesernity is a very good track that sounds like a fusion between the tracks Cool Breeze of Brighton and Siver Scale from Tangerine Dream's repertoire in the first half of the 80's. The cadenced keys are jumping nervously in a pure Berlin School of the time, while a gothic haze spreads its sonic rays like the buzzes of a giant fly over the lively flow of the sequencer. Synth pads stretch a melodious gothic aura, while the hazy arrangements also go off on a circular tangent. Although the pace is slower, this is where musical memories of Cool Breeze of Brighton come to titillate my ears. Reverberating twists garnish the ambiences, while electronic percussions solidify the chaotic dance of the jumping keys, and the synth throws in more whitish layers of haze. The track evolves with a melodic presence of the synth and takes an atmospheric turn around the 9th minute to come back with its original drive some 90 seconds later. The Italian musician adds a nice modulation in this rhythmic renewal that leads us to the finale of Froesernity. A very big track! In a scary movie atmosphere, Night of Thoughts offers a slow flow structured on a pulsing bass-line and percussions that slam in their echoes. We can make a link with the universe of Mark Shreeve here with a dark and tormented musical vision, even haunting, even if the keyboard lays down a melody that tinkles in the same diapason of our torment.
The keyboard is more in procession mode in Morpheus Dunes, a slow track whose initial cadence is erected by a faint bouncing movement of keyboard chords played in lower keys. The tinkling melody is of bluish glass. The rhythm gradually awakens with a more undulating movement that still maintains a slow pace, although a beautiful modulation barely quickens its pace in its final third. Keyboard notes fall and extend luminous hoops of mysticism, while the synth sways beautiful harmonies and subtle veils of ethereal voices that float and drift like the harmonious delights of the Middle East. There is an obvious parallel to be made here with the worlds of Klaus Schulze. The clock beats in full measure to disappear in the opening of Timeless that a dark synth shadow wraps of a lethal shroud. The mass of sound intensifies with these synth shadows piling up. Modulations in them structure murky tunes as well as a slow flow of astral procession. Slamming and clanking borrowed from time try to speed up this intense and dark march which becomes more refined and develops a little better at the approach of the 4th minute with the arrival of the percussions. The keyboard takes advantage of this semi-slow structure to incorporate a nice cinematic melody that reminds me of Walter Christian Rothe's dark cadenced melodies in Let the Night Last Forever. It took me 3 to 4 listens, but I finally got hooked on this track of which the blooming of arrangements also remind me of Vangelis. The Wave Save the King is very good Berlin School with an ascending movement of the sequencer. The rhythm wave is undulating with a tone of bass-sequence. Sober percussions accompany its dangling that rises and falls in this haze with fine metallic grains that depicts the chthonian ambiences of a good Berlin School. The rhythm is thus divided between the slow movement of the metronomic percussions and the fluidity of the sequencer. Robert Kalyos embellishes the whole with some nice synth solos that are divided between those sighs of nostalgia and that claw of vampiric melodies that nag at the ambiences of this vintage-inspired EM. The Last Horizon concludes THE PATH OF THE WHOLE with a slow pace, well struck by sober percussions golden with a resonant glow. It's a beautiful, if slightly murky, ballad, drawn in the dreams of a synth that stretches out its maudlin melody, like that last wistful look when we look back at our past. It is filled with a sadness that move us! And in the end, it's another beautiful album from Robert Kalyos who sails beautifully on his more accessible art while flirting with a bit more progressive structures.
Sylvain Lupari (May 3rd, 2023) *****
Available at Robert Kalyos' Bandcamp
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