“If you are a fan of the interstellar atmospheres and wide-open spaces of Vangelis, Moondust And Black Stars is for you”
1 Quadnic 5:36
2 Clair De Lune 7:01
3 A Long Way 5:01
4 The Easy Life 5:47
5 The Easy Life Part Two 7:19
6 Number Two 17:48
(CD/DDL 48:46) (V.F.)
(Ambient, cosmic, orchestral)
A wave of reverberations fed by white noises and stridulations makes the silence explode by invading our ears with modulations which sound so much like subtle explosions. This stripe of tones can also be a form of communication with extraterrestrials or these specters hidden in another dimension and whose language is designated like a linear form where inflections hide inaudible syllables. Quadnic begins to live and vibrate after 4 minutes with synth pads that surprise us so much they are unexpected. Abstract tonal universe or universe in gestation! Quadnic is a true reflection of what will be the first 18 minutes of MOONDUST AND BLACK STARS.
As I have written on several occasions, EM made in Belgium is developing its wealth with creative tentacles that pick up on all genres. This third album by Sebastopol, a project by Marc Debroey, is good proof of this by exploiting panoramas of immensely cosmic atmospheres which drift towards sound spaces of another dimension, or of another galaxy. After a first title that raised my questions as much as my eyebrows, the very electronic vintage opening of Clair De Lune coaxes my senses. These keys that waddle with a devilish air are simply tasty. The white noises that surround this walk of malicious little goblins serve the cause well. The sequencer crumbles its keys in a jerky approach which is divinely enveloped by a heap of synth layers in shaded colors. The music cuts its links around the 4 minutes to let hear a text narrated by Marc Debroey. It's surprising! It's not really annoying. Ultimately it goes a little well, especially since the cinematic orchestral texture returns to stimulate the strength of Morpheus in an anesthetic finale. A Long Way immerses us in the symphonic universe of Synergy, the album Audion. And like everything seems to flirt with a parallel universe in MOONDUST AND BLACK STARS, a field of sound distortions and communications with inhabitants from another space-time interferes with the electronic symphonic beauty of A Long Way. Since the opening of his latest album, the talent of Sebastopol on synthesizer has been flooding our ears, even if the lack of cohesion in his experiments can annoy what is at the top of the earlobe. Personally, I find this aspect of cutting music to insert nests of reverberations, white noises and glitches a little annoying. At the start or as the final, no problem! But the best of this album is yet to come with The Easy Life and The Easy Life 2 which are two titles that Marc Debroey attaches at Cosmos. Intense and cathedralesque, the first part gives me chills to the soul with a synth and its plaintive solos in a structure filled of echo effects and of static jerks. The arrangements and the orchestration turned me upside down, just as much in The Easy Life 2 which is more electronic with a line of sequenced melody which comes and goes. From what I read on Sebastopol's first two albums, Number Two reflects his universe better with a long title that moves slowly. It's very ambient and quiet with synth pads which touch the ends of their wings in a slow cosmic waltz. A melancholy melody pushed by this synth with tears of sounds tickles this line of sensitivity of our soul. The impression of floating between the peaceful masses of sounds is realistic, even when a good, and unexpected, down-tempo gently takes us out of our morphic zone. Simply divine!
I admit that there were moments that annoyed me! But in the end I was charmed by this cosmic, orchestral and cinematographic vision, and especially this musical texture, which is well adapted to it, by Sebastopol. And if you are a fan of the interstellar atmospheres and wide-open spaces of Vangelis with cracks that lets us hear the other side of your universe, MOONDUST AND BLACK STARS is for you. Beautiful ambient cosmic music from Belgium here…
Sylvain Lupari (January 13th, 2020) *****
Available at Wool-E-Disc Bandcamp