SOMNIUM Plane Music: Otros Mundos, Otros Soles (2001/2022)
“A wonderful blend of vintage tones gathering electronic progressive Rock and Cosmic Rock”
1 Overtura (Otros Mundos) 1:29
2 Otros soles 2:08
3 Geoformación 4:25
4 Al margen del tiempo 4:31
5 Universos paralelos 5:00
6 El exterior 6:16
7 El lugar acuático 8:20
8 El interior 5:09
9 ¿Quién hay ahí? 5:59
10 Allí arriba 3:43
11 Biosferas 3:57
12 ¿Es una vida buena? 3:48
13 Todas las lágrimas del mundo 7:57
14 Flashback 2:12
15 El mejor recuerdo 3:58
Cyclical Dreams Music CYD 0051
(DDL 68:53) (V.F.)
(Electronic Prog Rock, Cosmic Music & Berlin School)
I can imagine the thinkers of Cyclical Dreams moving heaven and earth, turning over rocks and tree branches in the landscapes of our planet in order to find illustrious unknowns who simply do not deserve anonymity. Otherwise, how do they make us discover such magnificent pearls through the 50 download albums of their online catalogue. Other worlds, other suns! This new musical project sails on the 2 poles of the Argentine label by proposing a very good mosaic of electronic music (EM) as crazy and as appetizing as deliciously easy to tame. Originally released in 2001 on CD-R, OTROS MUNDOS, OTROS SOLES is getting a second life in its entirety. The album approaches the 69 minutes which are distributed between 15 tracks that are, for the most part, too short, preventing this possible quest to a reverie without interruptions. But beyond that, we have here a tasty mix of progressive and electronic with a delicious bouquet of the vintage years. SOMNIUM Plane Music is a musical project that goes back as far as the early 90's. The trio, comprised by Manuel Jesús Rodríguez and Guzmán Concejo on keyboards, synths and arrangements, and Ángel Luis Martínez on guitars, bass and synths, is more visible on YouTube with their own page of 36 subscribers where it is possible to visualize about ten videos.
For such a short title, Overtura (Otros Mundos) fills our ears to the rim by beginning with big reverberating filaments. Whistling, sound effects and a dialogue between two synthesizers continue its fascinating musical journey where the perfumes of Latin music gather on a rhythmic structure that never has enough time to bloom. And yet... This dialogue, or rather this spoken song between 2 synthesizers, continues on the ambiences of Otros soles where I can't understand why these 2 tracks are separated. Whether they are short tracks, medium and others longer, the 15 or so tracks of this album are overflowing by a tonal flora that keeps our ears in constant wonderment. Geoformación continues with a cosmic electronic rock of the same construction than Neuronium with this very vintage tone that has seduced so much in the beginning of the 70's. The Spanish trio always exploits these interstellar melodies that have also a so much this vampiric aspect on a classic electronic rumba tune in the style of Jean-Michel Jarre. Universos paralelos is a little bit of the same essence, exploiting on the other hand a more fluid rhythm and a synth with juicy solos and whose parallel universe abounds in good elements of percussive noises. Al margen del tiempo develops with a processional rhythm in a cosmic envelope. The harmonies and synth solos have those analogous flavors, if not of Vangelis near his Heaven and Hell period. What is a ringing phone doing in a cosmic landscape as intense as OTROS MUNDOS, OTROS SOLES? There are questions like this on this album that are echoed in the seductive ambiguity of its musical vision. Sometimes they are cherubic songs or harmonies stolen from old nursery rhymes lost on the many threads of the years that lodge in these structures. Still, this ringing initiates a rhythmless but not ambient opening of El exterior. The music captivates our interest with other percussive elements and synthesized melodies that float in a calmness challenged by a continuity that overflows to a big rhythm structure enlivened by a good drumming. The synth solos, although my old ears fool me by perceiving also a guitar, develop a sumptuous texture more complex in the last 2 very intense minutes of a title which unscrewed my jaw from the face. And we have not finished being surprised by the music of SOMNIUM Plane Music.
I heard the guitar best on the very ambient El lugar acuático and its heartbreaking moon-like harmonies. We stay in intensity at square-inch with the slow-paced procession of El interior and its chants pushed on the same tune by weeping multiple tones synth harmonies linked to the black and white movie dramas. The bass that accompanies this overwhelming march is reminiscent of Patrick O'Hearn's dexterity. How to describe the exhilarating structure of ¿Quién hay ahí? without exaggerating? Let's just say that the jaw is always down on the chin, and it drops even lower in this melodious circular flight whose synth melody is a true relic of the 70's. To date, it's faithful! Except that the synth singing, the schizophrenic crumpling, the children's voices, the organic percussive rattling. I forget other things? Oh yes! The percussions. I forgot some, I'm sure! But all that make this track one of the strongest moments of this album and one of the beautiful moments of vintage EM that your ears will have devoured for 6 minutes. If perfection exists, it is on this magnificent ¿Quién hay ahí? It's with sumptuous orchestral arrangements that Allí arriba falls in our ears. Here again, the almost 4 minutes are stealing melodies, rhythm and very contracted arrangements of this trio that simply does not deserve anonymity. Biosferas exploits the same avenue but in a structure that goes towards a folkloric festive air where drums, trumpets and accordions are masters of splendid bucolic atmospheres. Yes, OTROS MUNDOS, OTROS SOLES rivets us in the soundscapes of astonishment from title to title. A giant tsetse fly buzzes in the opening of ¿Es una vida buena?. This buzzing fades away to make room to a tasty nursery rhyme whose visceral harmonies of the choirboys fool my memories. It's timeless, priceless and that's what's important! Todas las lágrimas del mundo emerges from its boisterous opening to embrace the intense apocalyptic ambiences provided by the mega eye of a Vangelis-like lighthouse. This tenebrous soundtrack of a universe collapsing into the abyss clings to the ambient harmonies of a weeping rumba triturated by the guitar on the bed of this O'Hearn-like bass. The noise returns in an even more shattering envelope in the heart of the track, which is towed by a dynamic set of percussions with a tribal flavor. It's like dancing for the end of the world. As intense as the ambiences of this track have become, as poignant has become the song of this psychedelic rumba bitten and chewed by a strident synth/guitar combo. Flashback joins these crazy e-rocks where everything fits together, except the multiple facets of melodies vilified by a synth worn out by its vengeful vision. And it is in a harmonious phase of rest wished by our emotions, attacked of all edges and all sides of this multi-faceted album, that El mejor recuerdo chooses a musical collection to finish this audacious musical odyssey. Always beautiful, the music is also always consumed by the taste of the audacity that links Manuel Jesús Rodríguez, Guzmán Concejo and Ángel Luis Martínez to our ears since the beginning of this fascinating adventure that is the discovery of OTROS MUNDOS, OTROS SOLES. Another excellent download-album from Cyclical Dreams.
Sylvain Lupari (23/04/22) ****½*
Available at Cyclical Dreams Bandcamp