A Universe of 1 000 Wonders

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Hello! My name is Sylvain Lupari, better known under the pseudonym of Phaedream on the Net since 2000. I live in Village St-Pierre, a small municipality north of Joliette located in Quebec, Canada. My main language is French, so be kind and be not offended if I made spelling mistakes in my writing. Just contact me and help me improve my writing.

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I became a columnist in EM since 2000 because the reviews I was reading at the time lacked depth and objectivity. Being a BIG consumer of E (lectronic) M (usic) myself, I bought CDs on very bad judgments of some of those reviewers. So, I decided to write chronicles on EM by developing a kind of review that dissects all the pieces of each album.

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My musical evolution that led me to be a devourer of synthesizers and sequencers is quite similar to many fans of the genre, either be at small doses. My first love in music was, in order; Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Genesis, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Mike Oldfield and David Bowie. Artists I still listen to regularly today. It was my friend Bernard (my life brother) who led me to discover the genre when he made me hear Force Majeure (Tangerine Dream), Cords (Synergy) and Oxygene (Jean-Michel Jarre). I did not hang right away. Except for Oxygene.

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My ears were soaked in the Heavy Metal of the 80s, and I still listened to the music of Jean-Michel Jarre and Rendez-vous, as well as all Mike Oldfield's albums; from Tubular Bells to Crisis. And it was at this time that I discovered Kitaro and his wonderful album Oasis. From then on, I started my very long EM quest by starting with Tangerine Dream, Synergy and Klaus Schulze. Subsequently, I discovered Mark Shreeve, Software and the artists of the IC label.

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With the advent of the Internet, I rediscovered the genre, since in Canada there were no more EM distributors from the early 90s. Redshift, Ian Boddy, David Wright and the heavy and hyper sequenced England School. The Netherlands School with Ron Boots as leader and Gert Emmens as the dominant artist. Finally, the Berlin School was still alive and had several pretenders who wanted to take Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze's thrones.

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Nearly 35 years later, I'm still a lover of the genre. I have a very painful illness that forces me to some sort of inactivity more often than not. So, I take painkillers, I listen to movies and music. A lot of music. And I write chronicles ... a lot of chronicles 😊.

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The goal of my site is to make you discover this EM that lives now only through a handful of designers, artists and artisans who year after year maintain the style alive in a low commercial visibility. They are my true idols. These artists work like you and me. They are my stars, as they are for the few thousand fans in the world. Fans who are always growing, but the industry is still one of the most fragile. It is therefore important to encourage these artists and artisans who bring to our ears some small jewels of incredible artistic beauty.

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I hope that this site is a garden of discovery from a Universe of a thousand wonders.

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Sylvain Lupari June 8th, 2019

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