“This is a small jewel of an EM which this time embraces the aromas of a Berlin School lost in haughtiness and morphic down-tempos”
1 Evolution 1:1 8:33
2 Snow Park 9:02
3 [9980] 8:10
4 Mol 9:09
5 Fossil 11:07
6 Take Off (album edit) 6:53
7 Gentle Perception 5:14
8 Time to Time by Time 7:55
9 Winter Sorrows 7:13
(CD/DDL 76:13) (V.F.)
(Électronica, EDM, Psybient)
Silvery breezes hiss like cosmic sirens above the breaths of space machinery, revealing alien fauna that feeds the Evolution 1: 1 intro and its heavy, slow down-tempo. The breaths of apocalypse marry the strikes of the percussions, merging in a strange organic rhythm which trembles of its heavy bass line. Heavy and morphic rhythm, Evolution 1: 1 kicks off this collaboration between Hidetoshi Koizumi (Hybrid Leisureland) and Alexandre Scheffer (Cell) which respects the ambiences and organic-cosmic rhythms enjoyed by the vast majority of the Lyon based label Ultimae Records. Produced between Tokyo and Paris, [9980] is a mosaic of lunar ballads which float and waltz in morphic ambiences. Lunar ballads which sometimes resemble each other and charm with a murky identity on rhythms and on finely chiseled melodies. They sleep in an electronic fauna where subtleties abound and bring the necessary nuances to duels of cosmic sensuality which dance on morphic down-tempos. A great album (are we surprised?) with musical and sound textures that fill our ears and imagination.
From the uncertainty of Orion winds and the reverberating breaths of spacecraft, which drag their smoke-producing dust in astral corridors, Snow Park gets born. Slowly, the rhythm emerges between its heavy drones to skip smoothly on sober percussions. The bassline is as strong than soft. Its haunting curves draw a morphic slow-tempo that broods a superb melodious line which sings with its fragile arpeggios under the breaths of a seraphic choir whose breezes merge into the screeching of a synth. But there is even softer and more lunar with the title-track which beats of its morphic pulse in a soft musical dream for cosmic coitus. Like everywhere on this album, Connect. Ohm sprinkles its structure with extraterrestrial tones and star dust, forging fragments of melodies which complement each other by interposed segments. Mol follows the same rhythmic model with a few variations. The rhythm is also slow but imposes a crescendo procession with timeless loops (which appeared in the 2nd portion of [9980]) claimed by the ethereal choirs which gradually abandon a soft tempo. An always so morphic tempo which implodes with good percussions of which each blow inflicts more heaviness in order to accompany this bass line which incessantly bites any rhythmic vegetation which grows throughout [9980].
Shaped according to the same precepts, Fossil offers a good line of hyperactive sequences which jingle in absolute emptiness before merging into a rhythmic structure which matures from its latent evolution. The sequences get activated nervously. They pulsate and encircle pulsations and percussions with arrhythmic strikes, thus winding an indecisive rhythm trapped in its toxic cloud of galactic sounds. And the embryo becomes a butterfly when the heavy down-tempo surrounds our ears with percussions which click around a quivering bass line, releasing one of those melodies which excite the hearing. The movement of the sequences reminds me of the melodic rhythms of Tangerine Dream and it's even more convincing on Take Off which bathes in echo loops and guitar riffs dragging in the oneiric vapors of a wandering melody. Gentle Perception is a good title that we do not hear coming but which does its effect. Devoid of rhythms but rich in lunar atmospheres, the movement bathes in an organic ambient landscape where taps a cloud of indefinite clicks. Oneiric and drifting, the structure strangely reminds me of the slow processions of Solar Fields which is dying before imploding in a suave morphic down-tempo where we waltz under a rain of Perseids. The synth multiplies its dreamy lines which float in the void, releasing breaths of angelic voices and a fine melodic thread, as in the long ambient phase that is Time to Time by Time and its metallic drops which fall into oblivion. Winter Sorrows concludes this very ambiocosmic ode to space with oblong metallic drones which waltz against the current in an ocean of lifeless synth lines. We can hear the breaths of the machinery carving these lines fleeing with fear the cloud of stroboscopic circles which falls on the tranquility of Winter Sorrows, agitating by its internal mutiny.
Once again Ultimae Records delivers a little EM jewel which this time embraces the aromas of a Berlin School lost in the lascivious dances of superb and morphic down-tempos. And yet the taming of [9980] was not easy. Connect. Ohm launches a lot of subdued atmospheres in which a cloud of cosmic tones circulates on evolving structures which are very similar. It is under the shells of my headphones that I finally succumbed to the charms of [9980] which is full of a host of nuances and subtleties which increase as we tame these endless structures. Structures hiding an incredible sound fauna that will delight the most capricious of audiophiles.
Sylvain Lupari (November 23rd, 2012) *****
Available at Ultimae Records Bandcamp
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