“This is one of the most beautiful and creative ambient music albums this year. It's in my Top 10!”
1 Living in Blue 6:30
2 Timeless Field 5:18
3 Deeper Meditation 10:52
4 Heavenly Over There 10:46
5 Twisted Sensation 4:33
6 Winter Solitude 12:16
7 Blurred Shadow 3:18
8 You Are Not Alone 3:24
9 Sun Shower 6:14
10 Heavenly Over There, Second Coming 7:41
(CD-R/DDL 71:03) (V.F.)
(Progressive ambient music)
Living in Blue envelops us in a soft synth veil which transports us to the Cosmos in order to waltz with the stars. This soft ambient moment swirls delicately, while sound effects directed in jerks strike its lyrical aspect and distance the beauty of the beast in an irrevocable way. This feeling of dissonance, of disagreement between the meditative atmospheres and the rowdy sound effects hits almost every door of the album. The sleeper waves of Timeless Field are disturbed by various tones which insert themselves between the rolling sound waves to finally cast their noisy shadows. In return, this merger of the two poles is at the origin of an attractive ambient movement. Welcome to the very particular universe of MOMENTARY DISAPPEARED MEMORY where Shinpal moves away from the conceptual ease of Seven Lives to put between our ears a daring musical journey into the territories of progressive meditative music. If the first two tracks give you cold ears, I advise you to follow the musical journey of your purchase, since the moods of the musician from Osaka vary with a zest of lyrical for the next 60 minutes of an album that will find a way to seduce you.
We can say that it begins with the ambiences of Deeper Meditation which are in every way consistent with the basic idea of the title. A good meditative title that has its temptations to invite this horde of colorful effects that roam peacefully around the title. Heavenly Over There and Heavenly Over There, Second Coming are two other great ambient music titles where the tinkles fill a backdrop of serenity. Thereafter, it's another story with Twisted Sensation which is built on rowdy oscillations that go from ear to ear, while the scenery is clearly reproduced on another channel. The effect is too magnetizing not to listen to it. It's like Tomita made the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's creativity my friends! Astral waves come from so far in this production that it feels like listening to 2-dimensional music when the wings and sounds of insects emerge from Winter Solitude. This is another good ambient track which is built on tears and sighs of a melancholy synth. The organic effects and reverberating sound rustles have more charm than deterrent here. Blurred Shadow is a short title, pfiouuu, built on whirring circles. We move on to You Are Not Alone which is also short, but more musical with sound hoops waltzing while disintegrating on a shroud of synth fog. It's good ambient music that joins the best tracks of this MOMENTARY DISAPPEARED MEMORY. Trick-ears or not, Shinpal slips us a series of acoustic guitar riffs that make up the canvas of Sun Shower. This angelic title, it's the case to say it, with these layers of seraphic voices which flow and enclose a monument of quietude makes me think so much of Manuel Göttsching. Heavenly Over There, Second Coming literally follows in the footsteps of its first part.
This latest Shinpal album requires some adjustments from the listener since it moves away from Seven Lives by offering a unique ambient music here. The quiet movements which form slow sleepy spirals are constantly disturbed by a flurry of tones which either accompany the title wonderfully or create a dissonance which will please our ears after two or three listenings. It's not so bad! In the meantime, MOMENTARY DISAPPEARED MEMORY is one of the most beautiful and creative ambient music albums this year. It's in my Top 10!
Sylvain Lupari (July 23rd, 2020) *****
Available at SynGate Bandcamp
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