THE AMNIS INITIATIVE: Ejection (2020)
“I discovered the depth of this album of The Amnis Initiative after a good half-dozen plays and each new listening brings his or her finds”
1 Ejection 5:44
2 Aurora Borealis 5:34
3 Solar Storm 3:09
4 Liberation 6:07
5 Vigil in the Dark 4:30
6 Reunited 4:37
7 Offline 1:38
8 Total Blackout 2:21
9 A Sky Full of Stars 7:33
10 Solar Wind 4:09
11 The Carrington Event (Flashback: 1859) 6:52
12 A New Dawn 3:01
13 1989 (Flashback: Second Warning) 9:00
14 Final Warning 1:39
15 Ejection - Sunspot Remix 5:35
(CD/DDL 71:30) (V.F.)
(Soundtrack, E-Rock, EM)
When we discover a new artist, our horizons seem to narrow. This so-called cultural open-mindedness evaporates to display suspicion, inevitably seeking to draw parallels with such and such. It's these parallels that often allow us to establish a better connection with the object of our discovery. And when there is nothing to establish these links, we seem to lose our bearings. That explains a lot of the time I needed to write this review. Links to The Amnis Initiative? Aside from the structures of Vangelis in his film scores, there are few. The music on this album is dark with an ancestral vision that matches my idea of that time when even the Amish were at the same level as all the inhabitants of this planet. And this reflection is not free since I clearly felt the Amish spirit in many places in this album, especially in the vocals. Very orchestral, at the beginning I was thinking of the last Mannheim Steamroller albums as well as their electronic rock anthems on Fresh Aire III and Fresh Aire 4, the music offered on EJECTION is in every way consistent with its story, that is to say this solar storm which struck Earth in the 18th century. Nicknamed the Carrington event, this storm produced numerous polar auroras visible even in certain tropical regions and severely disrupted telecommunications by electric telegraph. It's considered to be the most violent solar storm on record to hit Earth. This event is supposed to happen every 150 years. Imagine the consequences of such an event in nowadays!?
The title-track isn't done in the timid! A line of bass sequences hops up and down strongly in a rapid oscillatory movement into which a spectral melody of the synthesizer flows. Its air is like that of a spider playing octopus on a mass of air which rises and falls. The percussions which invite themselves, invite us to an incredibly good electronic rock while gothic voices accompany the initial chant of the synth. Ejection arrives at this point where the ambiences play with the tumults before the rhythm leaves with an increased presence of the synth which thus throws particularly good solos. How to survive such an introduction? Aurora Borealis does achieve this with its synthesized tune whistling a sharp melody. Bass pulsations erect a stoic rhythm while arrangements borrowed from the universe of Vangelis lead us into a more progressive rock sector. It's the flight of music with good percussions, a sequencer loosening a limpid line of static harmonic rhythm, while once again the synth surprises us with its vision and its tone which are linking universes of prog rock and the Greek musician. A layer of monasterial voices expires in a finale that leaves us on the alert. Solar Storm is INJECTION's first atmospheric title. Its opening comes from a reverberating breath whose sinuosities nourished its movement by silent implosions. Dramatic effects are grafted onto what becomes the membrane of this title, the second part of which becomes flown over by extraterrestrial drones in a cinematographic ambience ideal f