“It's a good 40 minutes of beautiful music to listen to the ears trapped in our passion for music”
1 Sun - Ouverture 4:27
2 Mercury I 4:58
3 Venus II 5:09
4 Earth III 16:35
5 Mars IV 7:06
6 Asteroid Belt - IVa 3:50
(CD/DDL 41:36) (V.F.)
(Symphonic Cosmic EM)
The wind amplified by a badly adjusted microphone makes hear rustling full of reverberation in opening of Sun - Overture. The first musical accentuation is full of vocals and lets through the first tinkles of pearls hidden in an organic texture. Dull explosions are also familiar to us. And when the synth draws an immense arabesque of tension, our ears plant in a forgotten title of the mega-edition 3 CD of Blade Runner. Despite the pandemic, Ron Boots manages the activities and destinies of Groove nl with an always keen ear in order to make us discover EM from all angles. We were privileged witnesses of the new assets of the Dutch label last year with artists like Robert Marselje, Orbifold C and Romerium. Not to mention the returns of new old artists that we recently discovered like AGE, Akikaze and Tonal Assembly. This new year begins with an old newcomer in Guy-Lian, whose real name is Danny Gijbels, who offers us a beautiful EM under the sign of Vangelis. Not the progressive and incisive Vangelis like the one in Heaven & Hell or Spiral, nor Albedo 0.39. But a nostalgic and taciturn Vangelis like in Chariots of Fire or Ignacio. Built around the theme of Space, SOLAR SYSTEM Part 1 is an opening in space-time with its 80's tone. It's a good 40 minutes of beautiful music to listen to the ears trapped in our passion for the music.
Mercury I is a melodious electronic rock with crystalline chords which ring under these postapocalyptic layers à la Blade Runner. The sound and the textures remind me a lot of Tim Blake and also of Geoff Downes with The New Dance Orchestra and the Light Program album. Venus II is a good ambient melody with these big orchestral clashes that raise the hairs of our emotions. And it continues with Earth III, a big jewel of 16 minutes where Guy-Lian takes and puts all his time to develop quite well this short cosmic symphony. It's very beautiful, but not ideal for sleeping with these explosions of orchestrations and these bursts of intensity that make explode the ambiences. An earworm-weaving melody takes shape around the 6th minute and the resulting orchestrations are conceived in the love of music that explodes from the harmonies of Danny Gijbels. The piano unites the two great moments of Earth III with uncompromising aplomb. The cellos stretch our daydream with long passionate rubbing which brings us to an intensity repressed in the violin ride and this slow crescendo which comes with this thin thread of melody whistled by violins, piccolos and transverse flutes. A magical moment that reaches its pinnacle in a final in search of our thrills, our emotions. A superb moment followed by Mars IV which could very well be part of Earth III as the structure and the melodious arrangements are close. With the difference that Mars IV literally puts itself on a war footing, thus nourishing these moments of apprehension of our adolescence when Mars was our sworn enemy outside our planet. There are huge scents of Synergy, when Larry Fast wanted to build a philharmonic orchestra in his synthesizers, in the symphonic visions of the Belgian musician. Asteroid Belt - IVa brings us back to this tender romantic side of Guy-Lian with lunar arrangements, I hear Fresh Aire V and VI from Mannheim Steamroller here, for a piano with pearl notes and its melody whistled in concert with this piano which gives us goosebumps throughout SOLAR SYSTEM Part 1.
Visibly inspired by the cosmic operas of the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's, Guy-Lian signs a very nice album as a first contact with a wider audience, via Groove nl. SOLAR SYSTEM Part 1 is a splendid album by an artist that I loved discovering and whose music and melodies are worth more than just listening before wanting to fall on our couch with eyes lost in its spaces composed for the pleasure of our ears. And I guarantee you that pleasure will be ...
Sylvain Lupari (April 6th, 2021) ****¾*
Available at Groove nl.
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