“Polymorph will please undoubtedly the fans of TM Solver as well as those aficionados who are in search of the warm analog scents”
1 Rhythmikon 13:12 2 Echo-Line 16:45 3 House-Reflections 7:43 4 Dream Voices 14:15 5 Amound 12:30 6 Analog Shaping 13:23 SynGate | CD-r TM07
(CD-r/DDL 77:48) (V.F.) (New Berlin School)
The percussions sparkle delicately. Their jingles are melting into a line of bass sequences which shapes a ghostly rhythm. A discreet rhythm which spreads its keys and of which the warm tones are joining the muffled pulsations which redirect the ambient rhythm of Rhythmikon towards a kind of lunar techno decorated with prism of mist and with soft electronic chirpings. Tears of synth take shape in order to widen some nasal and dreamy solos, while the finely jerky rhythm shows a more aggressive approach that will awaken memories when Robert Schroeder had redirected the axes of New Berlin School towards a more funky, a more groovy approach. Although recollections of Tangerine Dream of the 81 tour fill our memories, in particular with these crystalline sequences which dance gently from time to time among the symmetric pulsations, Rhythmikon wears the seal of TM Solver with this delicate balance between the rhythm and its fineries where the astral voices and the opal mists remain the nannies of these deliciously hypnotic structures. In fact, a rendezvous with the music of TM Solver is an event that we cannot just refuse. Simplistic, minimalist and very Teutonic, but decorated of subtleties which seduce as much as captivate, the music of Thomas Meier is one of the most delicious to get out of the SynGate label. And each new album reveals a little something that haunts the ear up to the next one And POLYMORPH is no exception.
This time it's Echo-Line. Superbly bewitching, like an upright carousel which swirls in weightlessness, Echo-Line offers a very beautiful ambient rhythm. A rhythm which gathers its charms with fine movements of jerks anchored on sober and repetitive but effective pulsations. A rhythm decorated with ingenious percussions filled with jinglings and with tones which ring like objects of rarity and sometimes change the path of a rhythm which remains nevertheless quiet. Everything is in the ear and its perception. Add to that some harmonious sequences, clouds of opal mist from where are hiding stellar voices, a synth with nasal harmonies and dialogues; we have a little jewel which sticks to the very intrusive charms of Pyramid Peak's best moments. It's very good and it lands in my iPod; section best tracks of 2014! House-Reflections follows with a more fluid rhythm. Here it's the synth which prevails with good electronic effects but especially with good solos which overfly a structure starving from rhythm that wants to bite our eardrums with a meshing of sequences and percussions which cuts it with curt hits. This is a good New Berlin School track whose only weakness is to precede the first 30 minutes of POLYMORPH, especially that Dream Voices follows quickly with a structure which adopt this lively and fluid rhythm. A rhythm which is bogged down in the fineries of Echo-Line. On the other hand, the seductive part is this approach which seems to me more an ethnic genre from the Middle East with effects of organic sequences and notes of a cosmic harp a la Indra. Amound is more ambient. Although its steps are heavy and resonant, the rhythm swirls stealthily in intergalactic mists soaked of metallic white noises, of spectral voices and their chants buried in the forgetting and of jerks fill by cracklings before gaining a soft swiftness which comes along with sequences to quavering jingling tones. Analog Shaping also presents a soft rhythm which is drummed delicately by sequences, charmingly dressed of percussion tones, which melt into a bass line as idle as lunar. It's mesmerizing and it ends a very beautiful album where the polymorphic rhythms sail in unctuous morphic ambiences. POLYMORPH will please undoubtedly the fans of TM Solver as well as those aficionados who are in search of the warm charms of the analog scents. Again, this is another very good release which nests on SynGate which is downright the cradle of Berlin School and of its derivatives.
Sylvain Lupari (December 17th, 2014) *****
Available at SynGate Bandcamp