“Moments of Life roams between our ears on pretty good minimalist structures with scents of Mike Oldfield and of Klaus Hoffmann-Hook”
1 Unlimited 8:08
2 The Return of O. (Part IV) 11:34
3 Paradise 6:01
4 Perfect World 8:50
5 Solar World 4:13
6 Tiger 7:00
7 Dreamcatcher 8:36
8 6 Minutes of Silence 6:07
(CD-R/DDL 60:29) (V.F.)
(Ambient, chill out and minimalist EM)
Frank Dorittke is like a neurosurgeon of sound. His patient? Tubular Bells! By dint of his passion for this classic of minimalist music, written by Mike Oldfield in 1973, the man behind F.D. Project manages to peel every nerve fiber of his introduction and to extract some bits of melodies hidden between two stripes in order to develop other phases just as much harmonious which lie down their charming airs not far from the roots of the original work. Sculptured in nostalgia and sorrow, further to the death of his father, MOMENTS OF LIFE is an intimist work where the German guitarist and synthesist ostracizes the devils of his sadness. Heavy and slow rhythms, soaked with nostalgic moods and killed by devastating, furious and weeping solos, MOMENTS OF LIFE roams between our ears on beautiful minimalist structures where Mike Oldfield's very notable influences cross the very sharp harmonies of Klaus Hoffmann-Hook.
The first 20 minutes of this last opus from F.D. Project are injected by his passionate influences towards Mike Oldfield. And it's in the hollow winds of Unlimited that he makes dance these arpeggios which skip in some perfect serial symbioses, reminding these spectral harmonies which weaved the introduction of Tubular Bells. The nuances are fine. One would say a remix with rains of musical stars and stigmas of spectral voices which accompany a movement more spheroidal. A movement always charming which deviates delicately from its hypnotic envelope in order to marry a good contemplative slow dance hammered by sober percussions. The tone is dark, very melancholic. The Return of O. (Part IV) explores a little more the furious side of Mike Oldfield's cult work with a more rock structure which is similar to the in concert given in the 80's. I think of Cologne, among others. Paradise presents an ambient intro with tears of guitars which cry in a sonic envelope as mystic than cosmic. The solos are doing itself echo such as big sobs which shout in a poignant cosmic blues while that quite slowly Paradise adopts the curves of a good cosmic slow tempo, a little more violent than the finale of Unlimited but as much mesmerizing. The slow rhythms filled with deep emotions are legions here. After Paradise, it's the turn of Perfect World of charming our soul. It's a really good track where Frank Dorittke's guitar is exchanging good harmonious solos with a synth to the twisted singings on a softly spiral structure where the chords which roll like a minimalist allegorical carousel are also strongly inspired by Mike Oldfield. The finale is heart-rending with its slow airy solos which always find a way of affecting our state of contemplativity.
Solar World offers a structure of minimalist rhythm where arpeggios give the impression of pacing up and down, from the tips of their harmonious notes, an endless musical mountain. The rhythm is delicate and swirls in vapors of ether and slow pads of absent voices to finally offer itself to the strikings of percussions which mold a slow rhythm that some synth solos are kissing of their cooing embraces. There is a subtle crescendo in Tiger, a small jewel, which makes run its keys into fine zigzags. Feverish keys which jump into the harmonious shadows of the following ones, structuring so a lively and finely jerked rhythm which binds itself into sober knocks of percussions. The rhythm is extremely magnetic and swirls with fine nuances in its rotations into iodized mists and vapors of voices before being snapped up by organic pulsations which resound beneath vampiric solos. Dreamcatcher distances itself from the musical imprints of MOMENTS OF LIFE thanks to its clearly more ethereal approach. It's a very meditative approach with a guitar which scatters its solitary solos, its harmonies, and its hatched riffs on a delicate structure of rhythm drawn by arpeggios disguised as bass pulsations of which the skipping swirls in a rather dreamlike sound envelope. Written in the memory of his father, 6 minutes of Silence is an ode to miscellany. Hypersensitive, drawn in pain, the music offers to our sensibility some notes of piano which cry in the breezes of winds. Winds to the colors of the nostalgia which slowly are transformed into breaths of oracles with voices as much seraphic as so saddened.
As usual, the works of F.D. Project enchants due to their harmonious magnetizing nature. The melodies are also fragile and disturbing as a symphony of crystal glasses in a state of REM sleep. More intimist and more melancholic, MOMENTS OF LIFE doesn't escape this golden rule of Frank Dorittke. It's a soft and delicate album, even if at times the furies of the pain are felt, even romantic which threads between our ears and dig a cosy bed at the bottom of our soul. Here is an ideal companion for the slow dying nights of November.
Sylvain Lupari (November 1st, 2013) *****
Available at FD Project Bandcamp
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