“Good melodious EM which is a free thing that is worth more than that!”
1 Hospital Planet 7:10
2 Dancing Spheres 5:18
3 Hawks on the High Way 7:51
4 Turtle Rocks 6:02
5 FTL 6:53
6 Blackberries and Butterflies 4:08
7 Tears of Love 5:47
8 Levitation 3:48
9 Hope 3:08
10 Flying Plants 4:14
11 Destiny 5:44
12 Gazing at the Stars 5:57
13 Hospital Planet - Ambient
Version 6:50
(DDL 72:55) (V.F.)
(Cosmic ambient music)
A wave of sounds coming from the Earth undertakes a dizzying journey towards the Cosmos. This is the center of the universe of HOSPITAL PLANET! And this is how the other 12 secrets of the album will open. Sweetness, intensity and finale! The title-track unfolds its musical richness with a velum of synth lines undulating horizontally. Celestial voices are woven into this veil where a muted bass layer gives the illusion of a creeping rhythm. Hesitant chords, some with a harp or riff tinge, follow the slow harmony curve of this track that flows like the soft whisper of a night angel. The middle reached, the paroxysm decreases gradually to close slowly this corridor of atmospheres and harmonies for a slow finale of mist and its mysteries. Ah, I make beautiful discoveries sometimes! Ancient Astronaut is the project of the French musician and humanist Eric Allietta. And like his first 2 albums, he offers the 12 symphonies of his last album-download HOSPITAL PLANET completely free. But a small 2 or 3 Euros to the artist will never be too much. We are not in the kingdom of the super production here, nor of the remixing since several titles, if not the majority, have points in common like the structure of the melodies, the orchestral-lunar synth layers and the bass layer which sometimes makes all the difference. If you like the title-track, the other ones should flow as easily since they are built around nearly the same semantic and well done as a house production. And it's nice to listen to at bedtime or while reading. It already belongs to my network player, sleep music section. The movement of Dancing Spheres is not without reminding a musical universe at the crossroads of Michael Stearns and Solar Fields, furthermore the music of Magnus Birgersson seems to have a clear influence in the vision of the soft rhythms and especially of the ambient musical decor where the coldness of the airs is warmed up by nice bass layers. Each title proposes a melody centered on spheroidal phases, a little like cosmic lullabies dedicated to make us dream with open eyes. The approach in compositions is minimalist with series of sequenced arpeggios, like keyboard riffs, which often swirl in relation with the meaning of the title. Dancing Spheres is the most eloquent example. Each track evolves with its own emotive curve, attached to a crescendo of intensity that starts nearby the introduction. It increases in the middle to reach an emotive peak to eventually go back to where it has started, endings often shrouded of mist or astral nebulosity. Like in Hawks on the High Way, which is the official video of the album. Now, the rhythm sequences are soft with crystalline arpeggios that gambol or skip in a random style, giving that rhythmic texture without driving effects but rather inciting one to float in the cyber space of Ancient Astronaut. The synth layers are divided between a lyrical and orchestral scale with this strong taste for embraces with coulis of voices that are strongly impregnated in the orchestral structures.
Turtle Rocks proposes a good lullaby on a spheroidal structure carried by a delicate ambient movement of a bass-pulse. A trail of scintillating arpeggios follows this rotatory movement where multiple arpeggios tinkle on a soft and distant melody whistled by a synth. Here like everywhere, the orchestrations are hyper enveloping. It's a rhythmic structure crawling with the shadow of a bass layer and waving on the ratchet of sequenced moiré arpeggios that FTL reaches our ears. Rich in its palette of tones and harmonies, the track tinkles its melody following an arabesque of sensitivity unique to EM of France. Blackberries and Butterflies flows like a nice musical tale. Soft, ethereal and above all poetics. The musical mesh between sequencer and synth is tightly woven so that it creates chills in the soul. The synth layers are rich in orchestration and lunar effects, giving a rather special texture of romance to the album. A rising synth wave hooks Tears of Love to our soul. At first blank of its emotion, the track develops a core of sensitivity that becomes more intense in a tightly stitched sound envelope with multiple synth layers that well divide the emotional input from the cosmic aspect while releasing whispers of compassion. This is a very good track unique to the astral poetry of French School. Like in many tracks on this album, there is a rhythmic gradation due to good, finely jerky orchestrations. If you like the kind of heartbreaking melody, Flying Plants exposes his on a rhythm as fluid as his melodious lament. Levitation is an ok track with a sequencer that follows a curve of intensity without ever overflowing for a more lively structure, comfortable with this static ballet where each arpeggio makes your ears and your emotion vibrate. Hope is a short cosmic ambient track, while Destiny is just as much but in a darker setting, quite close to Dark Ambient with droning whispers and a thin clearer synth line whistling another astral harmony. Very orchestral and quite poignant, Gazing at the Stars gives us a fitting finale where the ambiences meet the scope of the track. I don't hear a big difference between the title-track and its more ambient version, except for the absence of its unfinished melody that delights many tracks in this 3rd Ancient Astronaut album. A free thing that is worth more than that!
Sylvain Lupari (January 16th, 2022) *****
Available at Ancient Astronaut Bandcamp
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