“The title says it all; Zero Beat For An Hour! And yes, there is no beat for 59:58”
1 Maurice Theme 2:24
2 Consciousless 16:30
3 Treysa II 11:35
4 Wale Im Bergwerk 2:13
5 Orange Toad 6:17
6 Eric Theme 5:22
7 Helium Soft 2:30
8 Die Blinden 13:09
(CD 59:58) (V.F.)
(Ambient Music)
Always so unpredictable, Spyra is offering us a floating work where tender romantic synth layers merge to more eclectic, caustic and metallic strata in a hybrid musical universe. A universe shaped of multiple layers of a synth which dresses in tones of violins, cellos and flutes in musical structures free of rhythms and sequences but which evolves by subtle pulsations and oscillations just as much melancholic than irascible. 0B41H (Zero Beat for an Hour) is an editing of ambient tracks written between 1993 and 1999 and that Spyra remixed to make a long musical piece divided in 8 parts where synthesized surges are, now and then, moulded in symphonic and\or cosmic axes. I think it’s a nice album as much mesmerizing as disturbing where Spyra spreads all its abstract bipolarity and we listen to it as we breathe in the night-freshness. But, as many works of Ricochet Dream, 0B41H is offered in a nice digipak and in a limited edition of 300 pressings. Maurice Theme begins this work to well felt paradoxes with a very orchestral approach. Violins float and are enlacing with a fragile emotionalism to slowly waltz in a dark cosmos. A rolling of symphonic drum is breaking this softness, like a heavy cosmic wave which strikes the cliff of a grazed planet, throwing the soft synth waves of Maurice Theme in the very harsh intro of Consciousless which presents a start with strewed acute eclectic tones and galactic impulses. We perceive here cogs and spaceship engine noises among a din of caustic and metallic sonorities which tear the silence of celestial bodies. That’s an intro rich in colourful tones which eventually quieten down to offer quietude atmospheric as in a shape of a sonorous unconsciousness where delicate layers find softness while floating adrift with sweet breezes of synth which perfume the ambiance of saxophone, oboe and cello tones while crossing their quixotic chords beneath celestial bodies and diverse ringing. Some strange twinklings that resound as well under soft strata than assorted sound elements before finishing their resonances into languishing philharmonics pads. Treysa II pursues this cosmic ode with soft orchestral synth surges which embrace singings of locust from another universe and fine xylophones striking which resound beneath erosions of rippling metallic strata. Two parallel universes which overlap, the one in a delicate harmony and the other one in a rustic and cranky universe where bird chirpings and morphic sweetnesses exploit the paradox of the movement which wants to be as celestial as infernal. A slow movement constantly twitched which is ending in calm and is sprawling until Wale Im Bergwerk and laments from whales which sing in a universe of psychosis and an ambiance more cosmic than aquatic stuffed of delicious synth pads which cross timeless tickings. These out of times tick-tocks are continuing over Orange Toad's intro, a little as if time found again its importance in an intro where pulsations cross voices as childish as grown-ups which whisper a psychosis on more accelerated mechanisms of the timeless watchmaker. But a soft flute wraps this race against time where hissing and discreet, but dark, choirs are delirious in a morphic softness liven up by a fine pulsation but embellished by the suave clarinet of Eric George which criss-crosses the roads of isolation and solitude on the very moving Eric Theme and its very beautiful clarinet breeze which floats in a cosmic silence. A silence that continues in the mechanical breaths and layers of Helium Soft morphic synth which doesn’t succeed to smothered whispers of dementia of an enslaved solitude and which is linked to fascinating and eclectic metallic breaths of Die Blinden. If the intro is acrimonious with all these sound effects that squeak and such as twisted metal sheet, the suite is a soft morphic ballad always papered by heterogeneous tones. But sounds and breaths that mould a mixture of tenderness and anger where beauty remains caustic but of a fascination which has only an equal to the psycho psychedelic perception proper to the paranormal cosmic and universe of Spyra.
Fascinating, strange and disturbing but of an indefinable beauty, 0B41H transcends the punctual works of ambient and cosmic music. A strange rendezvous that the audacious Spyra throws to his fans and to those who look for a touch of madness and psychosis in a psychedelico-cosmic chamber music where only the imagination can frame any borders. Zero Beat for an Hour is an audacious album and a faithful reflection of the depths for Spyra unique abstract art.
Sylvain Lupari (April 19th, 2011) *****
Available on Ricochet Dream