“Syndromeda's best of all eras? I think so!”
1 Born out of Chaos 12:44
2 The Silence after Chaos 15:31
3 The Happy Few 12:30
4 Carroussel 9:17
5 At the End Everything will be OK 13:47
6 Lord have Mercy 9:57
(CD-(r)/DDL 73:49) (V.F.)
(Dark ambient Berlin School)
Organic sequences, chirping effects stuck on convoluted and twisted synth lines, sharp synth blasts and muffled, sometimes rubbery, rhythms are always in tune with the musical tales of the Syndromeda universe. Flirting between Berlin School and psybient in a music of ambiences always close to the darkness, the Belgian musician delivers us a very strong album in ORDER IN THE CHAOS OF LIFE. Danny Budts abandons somewhat his more complex structures in order to offer a more direct album that depicts the reality of a societal era confronted with new viruses, both medical and computer, pandemic, war and famine that it creates in the less well off people and finally the recession that it creates in a society increasingly focused on individualism and narcissism. In a perfect balance between its legendary atmospheric phases and its bouncy rhythms like worn rubber, Syndromeda draws from its nostalgia to offer beautiful melodic structures rarely heard in its previous albums. In short, something new from Syndromeda!
A roaring shadow laments in the opening of Born out of Chaos. Its ethereal chant mingle with a siren of urgency, as a nest of sound quietly unravels its oblong and sinuous reverberations that swirl and float in an opening that flirts with a dark psybient. Always haloed by an organic texture, Danny Budts' jumping chords start to beat in this slow maelstrom controlled, from the second minute of the track. Initially arrhythmic and connecting their tone to those of the radioactive waves, the leaps coordinate in a minimalist movement, one can even hear their shadow doing the same, on the tip of their tones, creating a rhythm bouncing like a worn rubber. A layer of chthonian voices and high-pitched whistles overlay this subjugating rhythm that hops around until it starts to gambol about 30 seconds into the 7th minute. Though bouncing in an ascending Berlin School pattern, the rhythm remains meditative in nature under a dense musicality painted with ochre tones as dark as shrill. With menacing shadows, twisted waves and eardrum-splittingly sharp aural embraces, the discovery of ORDER IN THE CHAOS OF LIFE continues with The Silence after Chaos. Keyboard chords create a concerto of electronic chirps whose highs are in symbiosis with the disturbing elements of an opening always so afflicted. A good synth wave with an old organ tone comes to cast a more musical veil, as in the good old days of Klaus Schulze, a few seconds after the 5th minute. A pulsating rhythm structure emerges after the 8th minute. Its movement echoes with its heaviness and resonance, creating a zigzagging and spasmodic rhythmic phase that attenuates its sonic range and ultimately its velocity by slipping under layers of chthonian mists.
The Happy Few offers a frenzied rhythmic structure after a cathedral-like haze awakens a swarm of beeps and sonic oscillations undulating like a cluster of spasms from a possessed spirograph. It's after 3 minutes that the sequences bounce effervescently in a rubbery texture, creating a highly energetic but muffled tap dance style of beats. The synth divides its elements into a zone of flickering waves, injecting that ochre essence to the singing mists, and another that lets hover beautiful melodic solos whose arabesques are melting with the heavy rhythmic velocity of this rather explosive track. The voices of the goddesses of darkness that emerge give an essence very close to the territories of Mind Over Matter to this type of chthonian Berlin School that has a strong flavor of the analog years. Carroussel has the ambitions of its title with a very good circular movement that lets hear a crystalline luciferian rhythmic ritornello. Structured on two speeds, the zigzagging movement gives this delicious impression of stumbling when the opalescent jumping chords try to run under sumptuous synth solos with long melancholic laments. Rhythmic riffs accentuate the cadence while the sequencer activates another more vibrant line whose resonance does not tarnish the innocence of this atypical carousel, considering its virginal and diabolic essence. With its structure of circular rhythms on 3 scales, At the End Everything will be OK plunges us back into the complexities of the Syndromeda universe, except for the whistled solos of the synth whose airs are very melodic. The rhythm lines, turning in parallel or in opposite directions, have a thin rubbery membrane that has the effect of the elasticity of a slingshot, giving this impression of a rush, of a continuous back and forth that finds an atmospheric phase in order to breathe a little around the 8th minute. The rhythm comes back with more padding and rotating echo effects a few seconds later. Lord have Mercy is the most intense track on ORDER IN THE CHAOS OF LIFE. A pulsating sequence makes its elastic tone heard from the 30th second. Its beat hesitates in an apocalyptic setting dominated by the reverberations of static synth waves and insistent sirens' screams. The rhythm quietly organizes its overflow which materializes by a vigor drawn from an ascending movement which undulates with musicality under a dense layer of chthonian voices. It goes up and down in this titanic decor, losing a little of its constancy to better rebound a few impulses further with effects of hoofs which slam here and there. The synth scatters powerful solos and sharp laments, like siren whistles, bringing more emotional intensity to Lord have Mercy.
Danny Budts sounds very inspired, and is inspiring, in this ORDER IN THE CHAOS OF LIFE. Still influenced by the vintage years of Tangerine Dream and the dark envelope that accompanied the Berlin School of the vintage years, Syndromeda offers us a solid album that is much better than his previous albums. Its best of all eras? I think so!
Sylvain Lupari (October 10th, 2022) ****¾*
Available at SynGate Bandcamp
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