“On his daring Chronowizor, Komendarek explores freely a musical approach closer to Krautrock and more experimental electronic territories”
1 Privatized Brain12:30
2 Clouds of the Virtual World7:36
3 Chronowizor13:58
4 Atomic Clock10:42
5 Colonization of Time4:05
6 Controllers of Mankind's Consciousness6:40
7 Fiery Tongues6:47
8 Mind Treatment8:24
9 Secret Center of Pugnacious Gases7:32
Ricochet Dream|RD071
(CD 78:14) (V.F.)
(Krautrock, Psychedelic EM)
When disorder, the anarchy of sounds and structures becomes more and more interesting, it gives CHRONOWIZOR. The first and only time I had the Komendarek experience was with Przemyslaw Rudz's album; Unexplored Secrets of REM Sleep. We clearly felt the influence of the founder of the group Exodus who likes abstract music imagined by various sound samplings on an album which brought a Przemyslaw Rudz to the gates of artistic excess. This is exactly the case of this album. Only the music differs. Instead of grafting his quirky tones and his samples of schizophrenic voices on a more or less ambient EM, Władysław Komendarek explores a musical approach closer to Krautrock and experimental electronic territories. And the result is astonishing. Because behind this strange atmosphere of cacophonies of the genres and of ambient visions are hide some pretty good musical structures which end up giving reason to the excess of this artist more than eclectic.
And it starts with Privatized Brain which presents a joyful rhythmic structure. It's 13 minutes skillfully hammered where you stamp your feet and question with your ear. The structure is supported by the good strikes of Zbigniew Fyk on drums and sewn with a bass line with organic chords but where also rattling of chains which oversize the range of the rhythm. A little more and it looks like Alice Cooper and his Welcome to my Nightmare. This distinctly rock approach disconcerts as much as the direction the title takes which gets to be enveloped in a mesh of female voices and floats on this strange hybrid rhythm that some electronic piano notes redirect towards a kind of fusion between a lounge and a psychedelic down-tempo. If the rhythm is hammered with the regularity of a hypnotic clock, the ambiences and the harmonies parade like a surreal soundscape where sound and voice effects weave a psychedelic delirium which leads Privatized Brain towards a Jamaican tribal approach. Foggy of its static current, the introduction of Clouds of the Virtual World scratches the ear while deliciously the title plunges towards an approach of big sensual blues flirting with the American Big Band and the strip-teases of Paris' Moulin Rouge. You must hear the synths molding orgasmic laments behind these delirious false trumpets. I wrote above, when sound anarchy is wearing increasing interest? If the first two titles are not the perfect examples, let's see for the title-track where the first chords fall like some invisible threats. We can hear a very Tangerine Dream influences behind this introduction where a vocoder follows the curves of an ambient processional rhythm. Like everywhere on CHRONOWIZOR, the synths weave strange spectral harmonies which prowl without really wanting to flirt with melodies. Here they meow like stray cats on a structure of rhythm which evolves slowly with percussions which click in the shade of their echoes, preferring the enveloping atmospheres of a heavy mellotron veil rather than the pure and hard rhythm. And like that, without warning, the album sinks into the abyss of dissonant noises before giving last bursts of incongruous rhythm, a bit like a cat on an artificial respirator dreaming of junk food in the land of felines without appetite.
Atomic Clock is the track that hooked my interest faster on this album. From its first chords we dive into the universe of Jean-Michel Jarre cosmic rock. The approach breathes analog flavors with very musical synths, rhythms topped by chirping sequences and voice samplings like in Concerts in China. In short, there is no reason not to love it. Even the ambient noises, which are very active, respect the dosage that Jarre prescribed for his titles in concert. Like what Władysław Komendarek is capable of anything, even the ambient seraphic with the very sweet Colonization of Time. And his synth solos are as juicy than poignant. It's a beautiful title where the ambient takes a completely different form by coming out of sizzling radio waves. Always surrounded by a sound fauna with a thousand surprises, the music scrolls in a macedoine with multidimensional flavors, like in the tribal approach of Controllers of Mankind's Consciousness or the crazy techno approach of Fiery Tongues or even the noisy, furious and very trash techno Mind Treatment. Those who know and love the universe of Infected Mushroom will be on familiar ground with these tracks. Secret Center of Pugnacious Gases closes in the most disorderly chaos with a dramatic cinematic approach, before embracing a rhythm as heavy as very lively. This is huge electronic progressive rock reminiscent of U.K. and E.L.P., Brain Salad Surgery period, at the height of their art. Even the voices….
I won't lie to you; CHRONOWIZOR is not for everyone. In addition to caressing a multitude of musical styles, the Polish synthesist abundantly sprinkles his music with sound effects which find all the beauty of their dimensions with ears ready to suffer in a good headset. I liked it, but not every day! The audacity of Władysław Komendarek, and unlike several artists of the genre, is not lost in cacophonous nonsense where only excess can be an attraction for those who like to boast of marginality. In disorder, in chaos, his titles always breathe a musicality from which emerge harmonies which are not afraid to mate with musical impressionism.
Sylvain Lupari (September 28th, 2013) *****
Available at Ricochet Dream's Discogs