“Stan Dart is in good shape and will surely give a good performance with the EDM of this MurInsel Vol.1”
1 Neon 5:03
2 Flow 5:47
3 Glow 6:24
4 Sunset 6:02
5 Starlight 6:52
6 Island Dreams Part One 6:36
7 Smooth 6:34
8 Island Dreams Part Two 7:49
9 Spring Chill 2018 6:53
10 10pm 5:12
(DDL/CD-R 63:13)
(Chill-out, EDM, E-Rock)
Stan Dart will be the guest DJ on the MurInsel artificial island on the Mur river in Graz, Austria, on July 28, 2018. For this event, he composed the music of MURINSEL Vol.1. This Chill-Out-themed album features an EM which actually flirts with a kind of Dance Music tainted by the influences of Vangelis, Tangerine Dream (soundtrack) and Jean-Michel Jarre. An album which goes very well in the musical genre of Syngate's Wave division and is offered in a high-quality 24-bit download or in CD-r, it's depend of your tastes. In the end, I liked the very creative direction of an energizing and very melodious music which will surely please the fans of Richard Hasiba and the fans of a night of Dance Music under the stars.
Neon sets the tone with a solid electronic rock well saddled on a good marriage between bass pulsations and percussions sober and effective. Very creative and nice, the melodious approach is split into two parts; one which is lunar with arpeggios floating in the cosmos and another blown by a synth more than romantic. Although lively, the structure of Neon changes its course with a sneak out of the sequencer which opts for a circular strobe. A short escape taken up by the initial theme. Although pretty rock, this title gives a good idea of Stan Dart's intentions. Flow flows in a suit of Up-tempo with a decor woven in enveloping violin layers. Nothing to talk to mother! Unlike Glow which on the other hand is a pretty good lunar ballad. The rhythm is curt but soft, the decor is carried by layers of mists where these absent voices hum. Filaments of these voices escape to caress our earlobe before getting in along with a melodic approach fragmented in an astral universe and on its sonic rainbow tracing a link to the Earth. Sunset releases Tangerine Dream perfumes and their soundtracks of the mid 80's. Drums and bass sequences combine their paces to form a heavy and slow beat whereas the vaporous melody comes and goes in a flurry of well-dosed arrangements. A second earworm freezes here! Starlight is a second electronic rock pushed by a good bass line. Looks like a music for action movie! The synth throws some pretty good solos which sniff the influences of Vangelis, and the decor is not far from Blade Runner with Ethan Hunt instead of Rick Deckard in it. This title, which is the catchier of MURINSEL Vol.1, uses well its 7 minutes to roll the same theme in slightly modified decors.
Island Dreams Part One offers a rather slow and very relaxed Down-tempo with a romantic approach unique to these musicians playing the accordion on the banks of the Seine. The flowery melody of these French arrangements is very catchy and could easily border a scene of love or romance in a movie. Smooth follows with a more ethereal, a more ambient approach. Although more animated, Smooth doesn't shake too much the ambiences. The rhythm becomes more vivid and robust with the arrival of percussions, stealing the beat to a bass which vibrates with relentless from the beginning. The monks' choir and the fluttering violins are reminiscent of Enigma or ERA. Even softer than Island Dreams Part One, Island Dreams Part Two is an ambient title with a melody which blends into an astral decor. Carried around between a stroboscopic line and a chill-out approach, Spring Chill 2018 oscillates between these two options in a suave musical universe. Very skilled in the art of weaving fragments of melodies which run throughout this album, Stan Dart makes shining one with a keyboard approach which flirts between gloom and seduction. I imagine that 10pm announces the end of this concert because the rhythm is cheerful, like the techno of Jean-Michel Jarre in his Geometry of Love era.
I'm not yet a fan of the genre, but over the last few years I appreciate more and more this electronic dance music and I actually found in MURINSEL Vol.1 some good titles that seduced me with very inspired melodies and arrangements. I like this fluid structure of 63 minutes where Stan Dart moves from one genre to another and a rock to a ballad with a specific place for an astral ambient texture. So, we forget that it's an EDM or Chill-out album. But whatever! It's very musical, really melodious at times in more of being lively and dancing. Have a good summer everyone!
Sylvain Lupari (July 27th, 2018) *****
Available on SynGate's Bandcamp