“Syrinx proposes a journey in the 70's with nice structures which mix the Berlin & French Schools with an always pleasant psychedelic vibe”
1 Legend 8:33 2 Syrinx 8:52 3 Crystal 5:06 4 Mount Om 8:05 5 Monkey Mind 7:44 6 Echoes 7:49 Son of Ohm Music
(CD-r/DDL 46:11) (V.F.) (Berlin & French Schools with psychedelic vibes)
Was Astronaut a minor incident or the beginning of an even more interesting album? Of an even more musical blooming? Son of Ohm's very first album joins this generation of albums that appeared too late in time, but which would have marked a generation. Behind a beautiful artwork of the psychedelic years, SYRINX offers a trip in the 70s with a superb 46 minutes spread over 6 titles.
A series of guitar riffs pierces the strident effects of a synth that seeks itself between its spectral or its cosmic approach. One would think to hear a more modern Manuel Göttsching on a psybient of the vintage years that was never consumed. My ears perceive 2 lines of guitars in this good Legend of which one is weaving a more harmonic than rhythmic approach, while the other one releases discrete solos that roll in loops around sober percussive clinking. This meshing crumbles its minutes with a good undulating structure when these moods rise with an intensity effect around the 4th minute. If the rhythm displays with elegance its minimalist finery, the synth spreads nice morphic solos and good effects that fuel the thirst for cosmic psychedelia of my ears. The title-track unfolds a sequencer movement with keys that make a strange circular dance. Winds from the Jarre galaxy traverse this delicate choreography while percussions and more serious chords add as much weight in the cadence as intensity in the structure. The rhythm progresses with its continuous jerks that are knotted around a mesh of sequences, organic effects and percussions in an always minimalist approach supported by palettes of winds and of sonic colors which are as much the domain of the Berlin School as of the French School of the Space Art and the Zanov years. Especially at the level of its dramatic envelope. Crystal proposes a rhythmic structure with a circular movement of the sequencer whose multilayers of wind and of synth effects are always in French School mode.
Mount Om is a good ambient and intense track with large synth pads that land in loops on a shimmering sequence of moire. Elements of Jean-Michel Jarre shine through these banks of singing tablecloths and cover an approach that is adorned with elements a little more organic. Percussive effects emerge from among these gurgles, further amplifying the richness of Mount Om which gradually emerges from its sluggish lethargy in order to propose a structure of rhythm mounted on a bed of pulsations, sequences and percussion with scattered strikes. An intense start for a finale which is just as much! Monkey Mind and its rhythmic paradox is the first title that stirs our eardrums up at the first listening of SYRINX. A good pattern a of lascivious down-tempo waves while that motorik percussions influence a mode of very indecisive rhythm. The many effects form paradoxical lines to the rhythmic structures while a delicate vampiric melody extends charms and magnetizing effects. Everything is well surrounded in a cosmic panorama. Very good! Synth and guitar effects, Aeolus and its anger as well as percussive effects take a bass line out of its hiding place to unfold this bumpy structure of Echoes. The cosmic landscape floods the passive rhythm of lapidary effects while the synth unfolds its harmonies in the form of solos cooing in loops. Bass chords and a whistling snake-like synth divert the overwhelming march of rhythm into a smoother movement whose effects and synth are signing Ashra's influences on Son of Ohm's music.
Available both in CD-r (on Neu Harmony) and in downloadable format, SYRINX is an interesting album, many will find it superior because of its homogeneity, than Astronaut which has literally charmed me there is barely a week. A prelude? Maybe, but not necessarily, since the 2 albums offer different approaches that remain linked by one with a nice touch of France psychedelic vision. A great discovery for those who love a Berlin School style of the 70's and sequenced rhythms that try to unravel the mystery of psychedelia.
Sylvain Lupari (October 25th, 2017) ****¼*
Available at Son of Ohm Bandcamp