“You want soft ambient rhythms which make dance sweet harmonies that will leave indelible traces in your ears? This is Echotides!”
Echotides No.1 8:05 Echotides No.2 3:35 Echotides No.3 7:00 Echotides No.4 7:24 Echotides No.5 6:20 Echotides No.6 3:58 Echotides No.7 6:47 Projekt Records| PRO00320
(DDL 43:00) (V.F.) (Ambient, Space Music)
I like the music of Erik Wollo! I think you know that for a long time now. The sonic bard of Norway made a success of the improbable in this universe; have his own sound etiquette that we hear only throughout his sources of inspiration. His inspirations are translated into guitar loops which he likes to put together into long sonic filaments for melancholic atmospheres. Forged in this concept, where he is also experimenting new devices and effects of pedals, ECHOTIDES offers seven reflections on tides and echoes, among which two main themes which are running on some subtle variations. An album bewitching with delicately enveloping rhythms, like always!
Hootings more seraphic than spectral introduce the first harmonious measures with the opening of Echotides No.1. Astral synth waves are covering these harmonious loops of a dense melancholic veil that a delicate line of bass brings to a level of peaceful rhythmic structure. The movement is minimalist and slides slowly towards some electronic percussions which mold a pleasant morphic down-tempo. One of the many pleasures in Erik Wollo's music! Echotides No.2 leads us towards some clearly more meditative horizons with a mixture of lines of synth and guitar which forge the magnificence of the Norwegian winds. Erik Wollo lays here some delicate solos from his six-string always so nostalgic. The sweetness element seems essential in the universe Wollo and this even with rhythms molded on sequences combined with the effects of guitars. At this level, Echotides No.3 is a superb example with a dreamlike structure where are floating thick masses of breezes with the charms as attractive as their sound colors. Echotides No.4 reformulates the ghostly melody, which seems to roam everywhere in this E.P., over a structure of rhythm slightly more accentuated than on Echotides No.3. But here the effects of jerks and percussions sculpture a slightly spasmodic ambient rhythm. And these loops of harmonies forge in our ears a worm from which we shall whistle all day long. The nuances are very beautiful with lines of guitars which float like tears while the rhythm offers more depth with the addition of a well felt line of bass in the middle part. These last two tracks are doubtless the best moments on this album, although I like this delicate ambient serenade which is Echotides No.6. Echotides No.5 continues the exploration of the rhythmic diversities of this last Erik Wollo' E.P. with jolts of sequences filled with organic tones which swirl under the multiple colors of Wollöian breezes. Echotides No.7 concludes ECHOTIDES with a slow ambient movement which reminds me so much of Steve Roach. An artist who influenced this rather particular universe where also here Erik Wollo finds a symphony on the cliffs of his native Norwegian. A beautiful album, always so tenderly poetic, which is available only in downloadable format. The first 300 manufacture-pressed CD having all been sold...
Sylvain Lupari (October 26th, 2015) *****
Available at Projekt Records Bandcamp
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