“If we look for something different in EM, this new When IN-Side becomes OUT-Side from Syndromeda will answer to your needs”
1 Native Alien Meeting 27:10 2 Upside Down 15:13 3 Reproduction NOT Allowed 10:35 4 Back to Sub-Reality 16:02 SynGate | CD-R SS23
(CD-r/DDL 69:02) (V.F.) (Dark ambient and progressive vintage EM)
A distant shadow settles a sound texture of ambiences. Dark ambiences which swap their hollow breezes for layers haloed of astral voices. Slow! It's with an epidemic slowness that develops the long introduction of this last opus of Syndromeda. Near celestial bodies, the sounds and tones take the appearances of the dreamer. On Native Alien Meeting Danny Budts has braided an alloy of industrial mechanism, hollow breezes and distant voices which float like a wreck across the intersidereal space. And not, Syndromeda did not change at all his sound signature. Dark ambiences, piercing shards of synth and radioactive sequences mixed with Tangerine Dream vintage other sequencing patterns liven up the 70 minutes of his last opus on the label SynGate. Flirting with the blackness of gaps, the synth lines roam like spectres come from far away. Set apart some pulsations and movements of layers which weave intense moments, the first 19 minutes of Native Alien Meeting are purely of ambiences and of dusts of noises. Percussions begin hammering discreetly under a mass of cosmic voices while the sequences sparkle of these organic tones that Syndromeda likes to give to his ambiences. In fact, all of the action for the senses takes place in the last 6 minutes of Native Alien Meeting. The rhythm there is ambient with a mixture of sequences to tones as much diversified as the bases of the rhythm. I like Syndromeda but I found the introduction of this meeting of the extraterrestrials' first nations much too long. But Danny Budts knows how to straighten his sound ship. The structure of sequences, which we listen to like a concert of chirping of birds which stammer, of Upside Down emerges after a short ambiospherical moment from where emerges a language of extraterrestrial shape. The rhythm is forged by sequences which limp and of another line of pulsations, before becoming more fluid with a movement waving as an endless ascent. A very beautiful line of flute throws a surprising musicality to this rhythm of which the wall of astral voices always surrounds with an envelope of mystery. It's some good Syndromeda who fills our ears of a rhythm unique to his signature for the next 8 minutes, before that a duel between this concert of apathetic voices and of those beautiful songs of flute is wrapping Upside Down in a morphic cocoon. I really loved that one. Reproduction NOT Allowed proposes an introduction loaded of mechanical groans that more musical layers are cradling of tenderness. This sound is unique and fascinates with an almost vampiric approach. Sequences bang as a metallic ball attached to a thread and which returns to bang continually on a pallet of metal. Another crawling line accompanies this static rhythm which is suddenly flooded of absent voices. Another line of sequence livens up even more the rhythm with lively and mixed jumps, giving an artificial rhythmic life to Reproduction NOT Allowed which will preserve its stationary approach. The same goes for the rhythmic structure of Back to Sub-Reality! Although steadier and presenting two lines, one rather conservative and the other one very nervous, of rhythm which is molded in the pattern of Upside Down, except that the shrill solos replace the harmonies of the flutes. This is some pure Syndromeda and it needs more than one listening before really hooked on it. But this is the whole story for the great majority of the albums from the Belgian synthesist. If we look for something different in EM, because the sound here is completely unique, and a progressive cosmic music, WHEN IN-Side BECOMES OUT-Side will answer to your needs. It's another beautiful sonic adventure of Syndromeda that his fans are going to savour neurons in the cosmos!
Sylvain Lupari (October 17th, 2016) ***½**
Available at SynGate Bandcamp