The Amnis Initiative The Colors of Time (2023)
Updated: Mar 5
“Looking for an alternative to the music of Vangelis? This is the answer!”
1 Synaptics 4:57
2 Meet me in your Dreams 5:56
3 The Space Race 6:26
4 May 17 2022 7:07
5 The Age of Discovery 2:12
6 Propulsion 3:45
7 First Light of the Cosmos 3:30
8 Ripples in Time 5:25
9 A Shade of Silver 5:12
10 The Cyclic Model 6:56
11 The Equivalence Principle 2:50
12 Implications of the Cyclic Model 3:04
13 Deep Blue Descent 11:47
14 The Colors of Time 4:16
(CD/DDL 73:22) (V.F.)
(Symphonic E-Rock, Soundtrack, Progressive New Age)
Damned that music can be so beautiful! That is often this reflection that came to my mind while discovering this very beautiful CD which is impregnated with romanticism and the perfumes of Vangelis, one also finds musical fragrances of Mannheim Steamroller (Fresh Aire V and VI), that is THE COLORS OF TIME by The Amnis Initiative. As with his previous works, Dennis Lodewijks offers a panoply of electronic symphonic rock anthems, with phases of New Berlin School, which are centered in a cinematic universe. The colors of time belong to our perceptions and the imagination that stimulates them. The Dutch multi-instrumentalist and synthesist does not suffer from any complex at this level. He presents here a solid album well balanced between its lively structures and its atmospheric daydreams that are always guided by an innate sense of a melodic vision built around musical itches, around haunting airs.
Synaptics starts this new musical journey with a structure that is not without reminding some rhythmic phases in the Antartica album. The structure is a kind of mid-tempo and is propelled by a very tight pairing of an undulating bass sequences line and of semi-slow percussion hits. It's a Babylonian cinematic flavored track with an earworm-like melody that is dragged along by the slow staccatos woven into the honeyed orchestrations that surround the majority of the 14 tracks in THE COLORS OF TIME. Meet me in your Dreams emerges from silence with a droning beam that traces a long circle from which various scarlet embers and more dramatic shadows escape. These embers become hums conceived on the principle of ghostly chants with a very emotive sibylline scope. Bass pulsations structure a too slow flow that a line of spasmodic arpeggios makes twitch in symbiosis with the soulless chants. This track, especially its sound effects, makes me want to hear Mannheim Steamroller and its Fresh Aire VI again. I love it when a musician is able to connect his music to the meaning of the title he gives it. To that end, Dennis Lodewijks shows a very visual sense of composition by linking his music to the various themes of his new album. The circular rhythm of The Space Race is the first example that jumps out at me. It's a New Berlin School set on two lines of sequences, one fluid and one bouncy, that support the Gregorian chant of the synth. The arrival of the percussions whips the structure which becomes more in electronic rock mode. The synths are always of apocalyptic-futuristic colors of the Blade Runner kind. The Dutch musician takes advantage of the 6 minutes in the title to make it transit in an ambient phase and to propel it again in a more dynamic final, as much for the rhythm as for the melody. Another longer title, May 17 2022 proposes a slow atmospheric opening, which stretches on almost 4 minutes, fed by winds, drones and finally by astral voices. The synth weaves melodramatic elements before that some pounding of metallic percussions