“Par Avion is an album in halftone with a fair balance between sequenced beats, sequenced ambient phases and purely ambient moods and still...great synth patterns”
1 Par Avion 9:06 2 Bavarian Eagle 14:32 3 Across the Canyons 6:05 4 Soaring Birds 10:43 5 Sore Birds 8:23 6 Starfields II Part 1 18:37 7 Starfields II Part 2 11:16
(CD 78:41) (VF) (Ambient beats and Ambient Music)
Here is the last chapter of the Sequencer Sketches series where Rudy Adrian mixes his soft ambient musing to harmonious sequenced minimalism, ambient, fluid and melodious rhythms. Without being a concept album, the New Zealand synthesist begins and ends PAR AVION - SEQUENCER SKETCHES Vol. 4 on an old framework of French cinema, with all the pastiches and sound effects which we can stick it, while revealing to us his musical visions. It's with noises of postman on a bicycle winding a path brightened up by shouts of birds that the title-track opens. A woman is reading then a letter, whereas the ambience soaks into a floating decor where the synth modulates an air of sadness and melancholy. An ambient rhythm settles down. Piercing little by little a dense veil of multi-colors strata, it increases little by little its pace by following this road of hopping oscillations of the hypnotic rhythms. It's like a beating floating in the middle of synth streaks which spin of their sibylline tints and of some notes which sound like an acoustic instrument. The beat progresses all in softness, initiating our ears to an upcoming world of enchantment. A dark wind pushes the first groans of Bavarian Eagle. Coated of a fluty tint, the movement modulates into a delicate swaying of the sequencer which sways its keys like a leg dawdling in the emptiness. Harmonious, the synth wraps its flute of sunny prisms whereas the sequencer increases gradually its pace, as in strength as with velocity. Some great and beautiful synth solos, and their adorning effects, strew this 1st part of Bavarian Eagle with fine tailspins which caress the revitalizing step of a sequencer and its tones a bit croaky. This music is an excellent example of a migratory title which draws its design from the brands of the minimalism movements. In delicacy, the pace is slowing down to undertake another musical migration rather near of Klaus Schulze's Crystal Lake perfumes. A nice piece of music! Across the Canyons is a music as poetic as its naming. It's more about a structure of electronic atmospheres than about sequenced rhythm. Flooded with sound effects in tones of metallic rustles, the rhythm beats shyly in a film setting with an angelic choir and dramatic effects which are propelled by good rush of winds.
Soaring Bird is a rather interesting title. A soft piano sips its harmonies, so mixing its notes to those of a guitar to melt them in a sibylline décor where the synth floods the atmospheres of esoteric tints. Shaped a little on the same model as Par Avion, the music evolves by layers of rhythms which are supported by a hypnotic movement of the sequencer, that does very Tangerine Dream at times, while the ethereal melodies and the synth blow a serenity always near the territories of esotericism. Its evolution and its strong TD scent make of it an inescapable in this album. Same thing I would say for the following title! Sore Birds used to end PAR AVION - SEQUENCER SKETCHES Vol. 4, during its first version, in strength! Its intro is dark and filled of muted and threatening beating. Hidden by an acid wind and a minimalism tempo, a superb sequence with echoing spin trails is re shaping the structure with a very rare aggressiveness from Rudy Adrian. A title to the limits of the psychedelic and progressive EM, with tones of sharp and distorted guitars, a gluttonous synth spitting destructive sound waves as well as heavy and neurotic sequencer assisted by percussive eclectic effects set the tone. These rhythmic furies end in the room of our French melancholic lady, that only the singings of birds succeed to breath an appearance of life. The saga Starfields is a kind of mini album offered in bonus on this version of PAR AVION - SEQUENCER SKETCHES Vol. 4. It's a suite to the first adventure which has started on Iridescence - Sequencer Sketches Vol. 2, appeared in 2000. Composed in 2006, Starfields II Part 1 is a slow ambiospherical ascent that Rudy Adrian explores a little more in his albums of meditative soundscapes. Without sequencer (Sic!), both parts of Starfields evolve with a series of anesthetic layers and waves with sound fragrances very near of the styles of Steve Roach and Michael Stearns.
PAR AVION - SEQUENCER SKETCHES Vol. 4 is an album in halftone which risks to disappoint those who hope to hear an EM propelled by violent rhythmic spasms of sequencers. Rudy Adrian develops a personal signature with his approach so melodious as esoteric of his movements of rhythms, sometimes ambient and sometimes violent, in a wide proportion of more or less meditative music. Except for the violent Sore Birds, the sketches of the sequencer propose all the same some beautiful harmonious rhythms which will charm certainly the fans of Tangerine Dream and possibly those aficionados of a softer version of Berlin School. Sylvain Lupari (May 16th, 2007) ***½**
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