“eleVen is a box of surprises where futuristic moods kiss electronica beats in cosntant hesitation”
CD 1
1 Tara King - part one, two, three 10:57
2 Breakable Furniture Dies 2:25
3 Mother Night 3:34
4 Behind the Massive Ball 3:54
5 The Interrogators 3:34
6 Blue Sky 5:48
7 Google Yourself 5:28
8 Noize Centralis 4:00
9 Conclusion - part one, two, three 6:57
CD2
1 The Descending of the Nazca Plate 5:14
2 The Tube 2:48
3 Ghost of Macula 3:42
4 Relax 3:42
5 Man vs. Woman 4:05
6 Complete Control 2:11
7 Imagination 5:17
8 More Ivory 2:17
9 10 Oriental Device 7:51
Outrage at Tranquility Bay 7:00
(CD/DDL 90:52) (V.F.)
(Psybient, Psybeats, Electronica)
We cannot be against diversity, versatility. When it's good, when it's out of the ordinary; we have to talk about it. As long as it stays in the sphere of EM. I think among others of the music from the Ultimae Records label which nests on this Blog and which enriches my listening hours with some great psybient, hypnotic psybeats and smooth down-tempos wrapped by a superb sound fauna that will please to the most of refractoriness ears to this musical genre. It's in that context that Conny Olivetti, a Swedish artist who is rather active in the creation of music for movies or TV shows since the 80's, has contacted me in order to present his last album eleVen to the readers of this site. Also involved in the activities of the Swedish band wHaT iF, Conny Olivetti as knew how to diversified his sonorous horizons by mixing to his creations the fruit of his influences which go from Kraftwerk to Vangelis, while passing by the music of Eno, Cluster, Roedelius and Faust. This diversity of styles and of all forms of beats perspires on his 11th album which is an immense eclectic sound mosaic where the dialogues ooze from the sonic walls in ambiences twisted by iconoclastic noises and where the rhythms of electronica always covet other skeletons in revolt in order to surprise the hearing. Inspired mainly by the English series The Avengers, eleVen entails the listener in sonic corridors filled by inquisitor voices and by city noises which perfume these rhythms in perpetual fusion and those ambiences of dark city perfumed by some delicate sense of psybient and where the influences of Vangelis, in particular his album The City, are at ringside seat.
We frown from both ears at the approach of Tara King - part one, two, three. The pulsations which darken the fragile jingles seem to mold a pleasant down-tempo. And the voice of Lienna, singer of wHaT iF, comes to caress our ears with a timbre of a young virgin. Slowly, the structure kisses a techno mood where some brief series of stroboscopic chords remain stigmatized in the somber linear palpitations of a tempo which pounds and oscillates constantly between the synth-pop and a soporific techno, except for a finale which injects in our ears this madness of percussions, here the mixture is felted and metallic, that Kraftwerk thrown between our ears with the tumultuous Metal one Metal from the Trans Europe Express album. Each track of this album is closely segued, presenting thus 2 sonic acts of 45 minutes where the ambiences dominate the rhythms. If Breakable Furniture Dies is closely tied to the first track with a rhythm which remains as evasive as muddled , it changes of harmonic finery and stands firm on its approach of mid techno and mid synth-pop in an ambiosonique envelope which transcends the simple impression of hearing the heroes roam in a city. Mother Night follows with a veil of cybernetic moods where noises of all sort are rushing at full scale all over our ears. Pulsations which sound just like percussions hammer an absent rhythm while a sinister voice roves between some ringings of bells. Behind the Massive Ball is in the same pattern with ambient voices and noises which this time evaporate in the hits of good percussions and the rush of stroboscopic lines which have escaped from the opening track. It must be a kind of psybeat because my ears move more than my feet or my fingers. But the effect is rather lively. With its tribal essence of the Middle East on a soft beat, The Interrogators is my first real crush! The flute here is magnetic and these percussions which sparkle with some kind of suggestive breezes add a subtle psychotronic dimension to a good down-tempo of which the outlines are a little less defined than on the very good Blue Sky whose lascivious rhythm is superbly cloistered in a psychedelic atmosphere. The voice of Lienna makes a good contrast with synth lines and their harmonies as evasive than secret. I liked, even if we are far from the fields of Berlin School. And the more we move forward and the more we are wrapped by the charms of eleVen. Google Yourself is a great track with its finely bouncy structure of rhythm, one would say a kind of morphic reggae, and with its spectral voices which remind me of some somber voodoo incantations. It's another very strong track here. A track such as Noize Centralis doesn't need to be describe. Except that I like this symphony of weird noises which collapse under a pleasant synth cover. Conclusion - part one, two, three concludes the first act of this double-album with a structure similar to the introduction. It's without the voice of Leanna, but with many more noises on the structure of rhythm which wonders constantly if it must move forward or stop.
After the very good inverted spiral beat of The Descending of the Nazca Plate, boy do I like these linear movements which make of stop not go and which crawl such as stroboscopic grass snakes constantly on the hold, which swirls in a great Arabian structure, what a lovely fluty air, CD 2 proposes us a clearly more ambiospherical, a more ambiosonic, approach where the rhythms beat with the fear of bursting in an immense pattern of television noises. The dialogues, the rainy drops, the city noises and the glaucous rustlings of spectres, I'm thinking of Ghost of Macula and Relax, as well as these strange noises which feed the skeletons of rhythms and the harmonies in fusion, like in Imagination and More Ivory, are dominating the rhythms a little bit synth-pop, Man vs Woman which reminds unmistakably of Kraftwerk mixed with Sneaker Pimps, or even a more techno genre as in Oriental Device and its ambient envelope which inhales a little bit the fragrances of Berlin School. Outrage at Tranquility Bay ends this rather interesting album of Conny Olivetti with steady beatings which resound under synth lines filled of spectral airs and in the harmonies a bit lost from a delicate piano which sounds intimidated by this heavy sinister approach. So much, that it cannot complete its harmonies.
I kind of liked this first contact with the very effervescent universe of Conny Olivetti. I like these skeletons of rhythms which are strolling around and are looking forward to imploding and breaking off the small bones with soft movements which seduce just as much as these ambiences, sometimes futuristic or tribal, which embalm eleVen of a very Vangelis fragrance. I believe that those who enjoyed the moods of The City and those who like the psybient or psybeats structures of Ultimae Records will be in the 7th heaven with this album..
Sylvain Lupari (December 31st, 2014) ***½**
Available at Conny Olivetti Bandcamp
Comments