“What a way to discover all the charms of Erik Wollo!”
1 Echotides No.4 7:22 2 Revealed in Time 7:00 3 Gateway 5:27 4 Visions 6:06 5 The Native Chant 5:16 6 Misty Blue 7:02 7 Within These Walls (Remix) 5:28 8 Airborne 2 5:31 Projekt Records PRO00325 (DDL/CD 49:17) (V.F.) (Ambien tribal Electronica)
Is there softer and more electronic than the music of Erik Wollo? And VISIONS-A COLLECTION OF MUSIC BY is exactly there to show it to you. I never was and still am not a fan, or a defendant, of compilations. I understand that in X-Mas commercial times, the labels try to refloat their safes with compilation albums. The pretext is ideal! The money suckers want to make discover the music of an artist by a collection of successful titles where hide 1 or 2 unreleased pieces of music. A little as here where it hides a brand new track, but what a track, and another one which was hidden on this very good compilation from Projekt Records, Possibilities of Circumstance released on autumn 2013. The only difference here is the real reach of this compilation which aims above all at making know the music of Erik Wollo. As prove its prices; $5 for the download version or $7 for a manufactured CD. Admit that at this price, there is no more reason now to not be tempted by this very nice sonic journey into lyrism.
The selection is divided well between a music bearer of dreams, like Echotides No 4 and its structure which oscillates like a thousand streams under the sea beams of the sun, and good down-tempos where nests a beautiful ballad approach as in Revealed in Time from the solid Blue Radiance album. This compilation makes an summary of the 5 solo albums, excluding some EP, that Erik Wollo produced on Projekt since he arrived there back in 2010 with the Gateway album from which the extract proposed here, the title-track, leads us towards a more tribal trance that an ethereal vision of Wollo. Visions from Timelines is doubtless the track which is the closest to the New Age nuances of the bard Scandinavian whereas The Native, which is rather recent by the way, plunges us into his attraction for the ambient tribal moods. It's a powerful track with a good lively structure. Decorating the delights of Possibilities of Circumstance, the slide guitar of Misty Blue is as much bewitching than its melody forged in the ringings with a scent of Halloween. Here also the structure is heavy but very hypnotic. Within These Walls, the only real newness of this compilation, is a remix of Black Tape for a Blue Girl's song. Here, Peter Murphy's Gothic style is transposed into a more oniric approach with long woosh which make roll the loops, both riffs and limpid sequences, in a permutation of the woosh for astral voices. From oneiric, the tempo becomes heavy with good muted pulsations and percussions of false wood which resound shyly. Tears of guitars tears it up with ghostly harmonies which float among the resilient ringings of the crystal-clear sequences. Airborne 2 concludes this good compilation with a slightly spasmodic structure of rhythm. We hear a kind of panting from riffs and the sequences blowing over good sober percussions and bass pulsations. Structuring so a passive, but all the same, a nervous rhythm where the melody is assured by a minimalist approach of a piano which plays very well on its nuances. It's reflecting very well the contemporary universe of Erik Wollo who always floods us with his very airy solos. Solos which float with perfumes of bitterness.
Of course I'm already conquered to the universe of Erik Wollo! The music of the Scandinavian bard possesses an identity that we don't hear anywhere else, conferring it a cachet which is more than unique seen its approach all the same rather intimist, otherwise very personal. Always flirting with the borders of New Age, Erik Wollo admirably knows how to play on these limits by diving into the tribal ambient and sometimes trance genre while giving an electronic side into a music on which are always roaming harmonies that we imagine to whistle on ice floes of his Norway.
Sylvain Lupari (February 08th, 2016) ****½*
Available at Projekt Records Bandcamp
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