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Writer's pictureSylvain Lupari

Son Of Ohm Paradigma (2019)

“Filled with perfumes of analog tones and with psychedelic vibes on motorik beats”

1 Algorhythms 10:10 2 Cosmic Revival I 1:25 3 Pixies 11:49 4 Cosmic Revival II 1:38 5 Caravanserai 10:26 6 Cosmic Revival III 1:10 7 Spirit Flash 12:19

(DDL 48:47) (V.F.)

(Berlin School, Krautrock)

Son of Ohm comes back to fill our ears with this good mix of Krautrock and Electronic in a 5th album called PARADIGMA. Involved in his projects from A to Z, Leonardo Wijma also draws these nice front artworks that still have a psychedelic aura which is also found in his music. Home product offered on his download platform, PARADIGMA is a well-made album with a pretty decent tone in 24Bits that allows us to discern the instruments used, although with EM we are sure of nothing! This last album of Son of Ohm offers a route of charms that we must collected as the 4 long titles are running. They deploy structures of ambient rhythms with a different approach between each. Structures that are in connection with the 3 other ones. In this new adventure, the one that was once Leonardo offers 7 structures, all well balanced at the level of length, which are linked in a mosaic filled with the vintage years' perfumes, with charming organic and cosmic tones whose pulsating rhythms create an addiction that we satisfy by discovering a little more the universes of Leonardo Wijma. Algorhythms doesn't waste time before reaching the inexorable border where psybient, krautrock and EM coexist with all their discordant charms. A seductive organic tone from the sequencer forges some ample oscillations which make stumble a first line of rhythm in a burning rivulet of arpeggios vibrating of their strong static oscillations. A wave of mist covers this fascinating mesh. Bass sequences roll in loops in the background, while percussive elements hobble like wooden shoes a little drunk. A good bass runs 3 and 4 creeping notes and the guitar throws its kaleidoscopic circles. The circles turn into small solos and the effects are turning into the pace of a sequencer, whereas the rhythm of Algorhythms becomes a good retro Berlin School with a Mellotron and its perfumes of flutes. Are these sequences or riffs? This is one of the many charms of the world of Son of Ohm where everything can take the colors of his composer who never hesitates to show his great respect for the whirling and repetitive loops of Manuel Göttsching. The rhythm disjointed, like a spasmodic skeleton, attached to percussive sequences, the flute and its piercing songs, the breezes of guitar, and the waves of mist from a synth and of its astral threats; Leonardo Wijmabalances a first title that requires a great exercise to our eardrums as the tones and their colors try to outwit two ears that should only focus on the listening. But it doesn't matter, Algorhythms puts us in confidence with an EM whose sonorous perfumes go back as far as the good period of Ashra, the first Klaus Schulze albums and the innovations on sequencers by Baumann & Franke. PARADIGMA proposes 4 long titles interspersed by 3 very short which are brief episodes based on the old cosmico-ambiant Berlin School. Cosmic Revival I thus presents a synth which illuminates the stars with a very Ashra sound on bass pulsations/sequences put in an ambient rhythm mode. "Pixies" gets grafting while embracing the remain of astral ashes. The rhythm is always ambient with a series of loops braided by a fusion of guitar and synth that hypnotically wave on the strata of a vampiric bass line. A sequencer invites itself to this sweet magnetizing trance by releasing keys whose diverging tonal colors go very well with this cosmic decoration. A rhythmic disorder settles down with the sweeping stubborn reverberant waves, causing Pixies to extinction. Its last breaths are from a very Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock guitar and sail towards the ambient and pulsating rhythm of Cosmic Revival II which proposes more seraphic songs of astral flutes than in Cosmic Revival I. This short moment prepares the arrival of the very good Caravanserai. A title that one hooks onto from the first listen. The rhythm is quiet and pulses through nice harmonies, tinted with Arabic perfumes, and an organ which benefits from the seraphic sweetness of the sequencer. Guitar riffs fall, awakening synth pads that hatch with an iridescent color. The guitar produces riffs in series, while the setting intensifies its preference for psychedelia. Reverberation waves follow the evolution of the riffs which also receive the support of the sequencer. A great motorik beat is getting on, bringing Caravanserai on a hypnosis track where the light Arab perfumes take all the place by good harmonious solos of synth (or guitar) in mode 70's. A very good passage that returns to its bed of moods and rhythmic hesitations of its opening. The keyboard and the organ are small wonders in this transitional phase where guitar riffs become support elements. Cosmic Revival III hovers in cosmic atmospheres of the analog time, with also some organic threads (like gurgles of amphibians). The very powerful Spirit Flash arrives then in our eardrums! From the last breaths and breezes of Cosmic Revival III emerges another reverb wave from which a plethora of strange tones emerge. A jerky rhythm, a bit nasal flute, deploys its orchestral effects in a sort of cemetery garnished of muted knocks and chants of ectoplasms. Little by little, the rhythm feeds on vivacity when the dull blows become frank blows sounding like hooves on concrete. This delightfully bewitching rhythm bears this series of riffs became very melodious, while the roaring organ layers spread sound carpets which look (or sound) like the different paths in a columbarium. The winds howl timidly, carried away by these funereal chants of a Mellotron (or organ) which rooted the analog approach of the 4 long musical sites of PARADIGMA. A very beautiful album from Son of Ohm, PARADIGMA is got to be added to a discography full of very good albums from the Netherlands musician. For a little that we love these charms of an EM drenched in psybient and animated with motorik rhythms for Zombies marinated in THC, this album is a necessity. Like all the albums of Son Of Ohm by the way! Simply very good! Sylvain Lupari (April 19th, 2019) *****

Available on Son of Ohm's Bandcamp

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