“Half of this short album is very solid while the other one is more than listenable”
1 Hypostatic Union 6:07
2 Morning Mercies 5:24
3 Scottish Fidelis 3:53
4 Two Adams 7:21
5 Abrahams's Journey 4:35
6 Basket of Summer Fruit 3:56
(DDL 31:19) (V.F.)
(Ambient Music)
In this huge galaxy of electronic music (EM) styles that the Argentine label has been offering for almost 2 years, Cyclical Dreams sometimes offers an adventure that depicts the very eclectic character of its catalog of artists and albums always offered for download. Sergio Mariani is a newcomer who flirts with many styles of contemporary EM. Except that here, the Argentinian musician offers a mini album-download with a spiritual edge. In a vision of atmospheric music bordering the cosmic zones, MORNING MERCIES proposes 6 tracks of an average length of more or less 5 minutes which are centered on ambient music having a strong ascendance on religious themes from the one designed as God!
Hypostatic Union starts this new electronic adventure from the Argentinean label with synth threads floating with their sharp tones. They drift like shadows contrasting in their mirror effect and get entangled to finally irradiate sound arcs whose radiances give off thin lines of sibylline voices in a cosmic soundscape that depicts quite well this union of the two natures, the Divine versus Human. Morning Mercies offers a good soaring track with waves of synth drifting like those birds whose wings are propelled by slow southern winds. We drift in our thoughts, as we can sleep on those slow winged movements. The shortest track of this short sound essay, Scottish Fidelis is nevertheless the most intense with reverberations effects having tones' bells. A rather high-pitched female voice lends its laments to this game of sharp tones, giving a surrealist sibylline side to this mini ambient concert for curious ears. Two Adams brings us back to a register closer to Hypostatic Union, although some of the tones have that silvery aspect of the previous track, with synth waves and shadows that wind and tangle in a spheroidal astral ballet. While the repetitive motion seems customary to EM aficionados, the now US-based musician adds a quaking effect to some of his hovering shadows, revealing that more puny aspect in this mass of brassy tones. And if we think about it further, we can feel this clash between the ideologies of the two Adams. With its percussive tinklings pecking at its opening, Abrahams's Journey offers a bouncing rhythmic figure on a bed of reverberations propagating through the arcs of the azure sound waves. The music offers tenebrous breaths that add a more spectral dimension to this rhythm that gracefully undulates between the buzzing breaths and the echo of its tinklings. At times, the feeling of being on a train traveling an astral path is more than tangible. It's a beautiful track and the anchor of this mini-album that ends with the more than pastoral ambiences of Basket of Summer Fruit and its dark shadows that hover in the furrows of seraphic voices.
Although rather short, MORNING MERCIES lets go a beautiful 30 minutes of an EM conducive to meditation. I would say that half of this short album-download is very solid while the other one is more than listenable. I would add that its very high quality is linked to this capacity of Sergio Mariani to put in music the spirit of the name behind each of the titles that compose his first album on Cyclical Dreams.
Sylvain Lupari (June 3rd, 2022) *****
Available at Cyclical Dreams Bandcamp