“As much superb as stunning, Index04 is a great compilation which sounds just like an original opus of an awesome progressive Berlin School”
1 Frontiers (Boddy & Wøllo) 5:08
2 Church (ARC) 4:53
3 Soliloquoy (Ian Boddy & Parallel Worlds) 4:56
4 Spooks (Mazmoneth) 4:02
5 Ascension (Boddy & Wøllo) 3:56
6 Dervish (Reuter & Boddy) 4:36
7 The Wayfarers (Wøllo & Wöstheinrich) 4:31
8 Continuum-Alpha (I. Boddy) 4:07
9 Shade (Parallel Worlds) 4:27
11 Exploration (Wollo & Wostheinrich) 5:14
12 A Moment of Gliss (I.Boddy) 3:06
13 Veil (Ian Boddy) 4:03
14 Frightening Frontiers (Parallel Worlds) 3:21
15 The Climb-Ascent (I.Boddy) 3:03
16 Impresario (Ian Boddy & Parallel Worlds) 4:46
17 Yesterdays Memories (Ian Boddy) 4:42
18 Spiral Manoeuvre (Reuter & Boddy) 4:56
(CD/DDL 77:48) (V.F.)
(Ambient, Progressive EM)
A compilation from DiN Records is an event in itself. In spite of the fact that every volume of the Index series is a compilation of the last 9 albums released on DiN, each one pours in our ears with a quite other artistic dimension. iNDEX04 distances itself even more with a musical reach which penetrates into the somber corridors of a deep and black Berlin School, in the genre of Ian Boddy or of his duet with Mark Shreeve; Arc. Ian Boddy made a very beautiful collection of titles which interlace as in a single musical mosaic filled by the various styles which teem within DiN. Whether it’s a progressive and contemporary EM, like with Derwish (Reuter & Boddy), or an eclectic down-tempo, as with Mazmoneth's Music by Mirrors or still a somber experimental Berlin School à la Parallel Worlds, the choice of tracks and the order in which Ian Boddy juxtaposed them give the impression that we are flirting much more with an original work than a compilation to the scents of an old Berlin School shaken by contemporary elements.
So, Frontiers from the Boddy/Wollo duet makes us relive the beautiful years of Tangerine Dream with a steady rhythm and synths filled by the aromas of Stratosfear. A muffled rhythm which hesitates like steps of wolves and synths with fluty breaths, Church from Arc pursues this tangent of a heavy and fluid Berlin School introduced by Tangerine Dream with the era Ricochet/Rubycon. This heavy rhythm evaporates in the lethargic ambiences of Soliloquoy and its fine crystalline keys which dance along arrhythmic percussions. This soft tempo is rocked by some nice foggy synth layers which run away towards Spooks by Mazmoneth (my very favorite for 2011) and his delicate jazzy up-tempo structure, while Ascension Day loops the loop of this first incursion into Berlin School with a superb musical ambient journey drowned by luxurious strata of a very poetic synth. What to do with a track as much hard-hitting as Derwish? Well, we break the atmospheres of a Berlin School at its both antipodes to dive into a powerful electronic progressive rock à la sauce King Crimson. This is what the title-track of this stunning album offers; a break up-beat coated by floating synth layers and guitar treatments worthy of the legendary Frippertronic. The journey in the cortices of the universe of DiN contemporary EM of continues with The Wayfarers taken from the Arcadia Borealis album which dances on the heavy rhythm of a tribe without borders. A rhythm blazed by strata as melodious as spectral which; taken out of their context, take quite another depth. Another title that we savor in another way is Continuum – Alpha that Ian Boddy presented in his double compilation CD, Pearl. This title espouses marvellously the jerky rhythm and the spectral synth forms of The Wayfarers. With Parallel Worlds' Shade we have the feeling to swim at deep in the black but romantic universe of Arc. The notes of piano which run and dance slightly in the echoes of percussions slamming into chthonian ambiences add more depth to a compilation which makes relive the somber rhythms of a black Berlin School broken by more contemporary structures.
De Molay follows to continue our immersion in the meanders of an EM as black as poetic. This super track from Mazmoneth offers a down-tempo torn between its threatening ambience and its soft melancholic phase. Exploration from the Wollo/Wostheinrich duet is sticking to a tinkled synth which rings a ballad on a supple rhythm split up by arrhythmic pulsations. A Moment of Gliss follows with the ghostly beauty of its Martenot waves before Veil and its big wings of a predator Mellotron entails us in the lightning whirlwinds of the powerful Church album. Ian Boddy is dragging us even more further into the hollow of a stunning heavy and dark musical journey and Frightening Frontiers makes the link between the heavy and static rhythms of Arc to those more limpid and fluid from The Climb-Ascent while Impresario, out of Exit Strategy, seems to pop out of some Boddy/Shreeve sessions. If Yesterdays Memories, out of Boddy's Slide album, pushes the Martenot waves on a more technoïd structure, Spiral Manoeuvre from Boddy/ Reuter brings us back into the meditative breaths of a dark ambient music with one of the floating moments from Derwish.
As much superb as stunning, this DiN's iNDEX04 is not a usual compilation. We may know the 9 albums that go between our ears; every title chosen lets itself be rediscovering in a context which gives them a so unsuspected dimension that the illusion of being in front of an original work is not false. iNDEX04 is a very good opus and an inescapable compilation skillfully forged by the brilliant Ian Boddy.
Sylvain Lupari (December 15th, 2012) ****½*
Available at DiN Bandcamp