“Here is a strange album with a music quite difficult to seize but at the end we end to be seized quite solid by it”
1 Cosine 3:56 2 Blue Planet Talisman 10:07 3 New Wave Factor 4:45 4 Black Sea of Trees (remix) 4:02 5 Moon Annexe 6:04 6 Timeslip 6:40 7 Townland 6:30 8 64 Lightshow 3:22 9 Element 115 3:32 10 Sine 3:28 SynGate CD-r MJ04
(Cd-r/DDL 52:26) (V.F.) (Cosmic, filmic and Berlin School)
The sound wave which evaporates rayon as these circles of a black water that a finger has pierced. Multiplying its tones, it scatters in multitude of sound waves which float as of peaceful sleeping drones to decorate the rather meditative landscape of Cosine. Layers of an organ filled of gloomy sibylline harmonies punctuate the heavens whereas that woosh, and their iodized particles, converges lazily over the title-track. The first bangings of BLUE PLANET TALISMAN find echo from a loudspeaker to another. These felted bangings are sparkling between the shadows of the waves, spreading a nickel-plated halo where hang on shy hesitating chords which coo peacefully. This series of harmonious and a bit esoteric loops will awaken in some of us memories of Ashra's early years. And when the limping of other chords, a little more in the tone of percussions, suggest to our neurons to dance an ambient cha-cha, our ears inhale then the perfumes of Steve Roach's organic rhythms. Inspired by Martin Millar's drawing, which covers the artwork of this first opus of Bouvetoya in the new SynGate Wave division, BLUE PLANET TALISMAN is an album of hybrid EM put in box around 10 compositions improvised in studio to whom Michael Jones added the minimum of overdubs.
The Irish musician wants thus to recreate in studio the effect of a concert. Hybrid EM? Absolutely! Far from the lands of Berlin School and of the traditional ambient music, this last opus of Bouvetoya inhales all the same these old perfumes of the years of ether but in a more film, a more visual shroud of atmosphere, with fathomless rhythms which are enough intriguing to deserve a quite new division of the German label SynGate. An audacious bet which underlines that there are still creators who still try to innovate, even in a darker envelope. And while we can feel some influences of Steve Roach, of Manuel Gottsching and of Klaus Schulze, the music of BLUE PLANET TALISMAN remains unseizable with a unique imprint where the drama and the melancholy are of used as background to a music which depicts aptly the vision and the atmospheres of Martin Millar's drawing.
Cosine and Blue Planet Talisman are welded together and if that wouldn't be of an odd fade-out, one easily could say as much for New wave Factor which walks on the ashes of the title-track with a kind of military march. The rollings of the percussions are just as much felted, while the impulses of the bass line weave a dramatic pattern from where other lines are getting loose and crawl like big fat resonant worms and that a delicate melody is blown by a synth which subdivides its lines with fluty harmonies. The more the track goes forward and the more a kind of anarchy is settling, creating a paradox between the peace of mind of the opening and a more effervescent finale. If we like, and we are going to like, Timeslip is sculpted in the same sound fabric while the atmospheres of a frightened blue are seizing the whole 53 minutes of BLUE PLANET TALISMAN. Black Sea of Trees is a remix of a Bocuma title. And the atmospheres, and the harmonies and the rhythm, which leans on constant cracklings, would be copies or shadows of New wave Factor that we would not be surprised. It's a beautiful title, without really of structure of lively rhythm but a rather very effective one, with a nice melody that haunts the brain many minutes later. Moon Annexe is more violent with an electronic ambient rhythm which drums rather dully in large layers of synth filled with the iodized aromas of Klaus Schulze, period Timewind. After the surprising Timeslip, Townland brings us towards a soft rhythms which is inspired by Arabian moods. That does very Pharaonic, both by the richness in atmospheres and by the rhythm which reminds these long caravans, and their allegorical tanks, dragged by slaves. Always maculated by this fascinating sensation of blue dust which floods the music of BLUE PLANET TALISMAN, 64 Lightshow is a heavy ambient track full of mysteries and where nests a delicate morphic lullaby. Element 115 offers a beautiful ballad, almost a morphic down-tempo, flooded by layers of organ. Like in the time of Procol Harum. The percussions/pulsations imitate a grieving heart while the philharmonic tunes of the synth throw a very melancholic aura. There is a lot of emotions in this track which could be used as well for the end credit music of an intergalactic western movie. Sine loops the loop with an ambient approach which returns us to Cosine, concluding so a fascinating album which shows off all the talent of Bouvetoya for creating music which fits his vision, his mind. There is some very good music on this album which, at first, will make you frown but which in the long run will know how to cajole you. By far, I preferred the experience of listening BLUE PLANET TALISMAN with a good set of earphones.
Sylvain Lupari (March 21st, 2016) ***½**
Available at SynGate Bandcamp
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