“In the line of Klaus Schulze's minimalist works, plus a seraphic touch, Matangi is magnetic, bewitching and above all very beautiful”
1 The Sound of Magic 26:47
2 Wonder Spell 28:24
3 Aqua Fortis 23:21
(CD-r/DDL 78:32) (V.F.)
(Minimalist Roumanian School)
MATANGI is the 9th Great Cosmic Power of the Hindu Tantric tradition. She is the Goddess of inner reflection. It's also the 9th album of the Tantric Celebration series that Indra undertook in 2006. A series that the Romanian synthesist has not touched for more than 18 months and which nevertheless has lost nothing of its common thread with a very beautiful album where the serenity of the Romanian musician is always transposed on electronic minimalist structures worthy of a good ethereal Berlin School. Following the precepts of its concept, MATANGI is a meditative album where the soft rhythms progress slowly with fine crystalline sequences which twirl in mist and angelic voices. The album is made up of 3 tracks, only one of which is predominantly ambient, where the unique rhythms of Indra's signature are caressed by synths whose harmonic breaths become more and more imbued with the romanticism of Vangelis.
Impregnated with mysticism and erected on rhythms and ambiences with fine seraphic permutations, The Sound of Magic begins its cerebral odyssey with crystalline synth keys that spin and shape a bewitching oneiric melody. These chords get subdivided and scatter their harmonies which cling, together with the ethereal choirs, to fine snakes chime to marry sequenced forms which crisscross in a good harmonic maze on a light, melodic and lyrical rhythm. Mixing tones and playing on harmonious nuances, Indra weaves a garden of meditative serenity where the tranquility of the psalms and the harmony of scintillating sequences gets disturbed by a line sculpted in a bass tone which pierces the waddling of synth keys to undulate and winding towards the 2nd phase of The Sound of Magic. This lonely line turns round, shaking its resonant chords that bind their spasms to a skipping and jerky rhythm. A fluid rhythm which winds under ocher breaths, bringing back debris of scintillating chords which radiate above this immense disarticulated stroboscopic serpent whose race ends in the ambient territories of The Sound of Magic. We are at the 13th minute and the synth breaths with Vangelis tones blacken the rays of a sparkling stream. It's a short ambient passage where the synth waves which float among the ocher sighs weave good harmonic fragments, guiding The Sound of Magic towards its 4th and last phase. Its most harmonious phase. A little after the 17th minute, the sequencer spreads its keys. They waddle sporadically under a ringing hoop and these ocher sighs which line the spiritual abyss of The Sound of Magic. A tasty and timeless dance follows where these chords unite their alternative rhythms and their morphic harmonies, drawing a spiral spinning delicately in oneiric vapors.
Wonder Spell is the most atmospheric track on MATANGI. Mermaid chants radiate above a long intro fed by oblong echoing reverberations. The ambience is surreal with these heavy tones of industrial machinery which breathe under undulating synth layers which waltz in a cave where the crystals ooze with a murky perspiration. Strange and quirky, this heavy phase resulting from the terrestrial abysses is drowned in the intensity of the lethal choirs, leading Wonder Spell towards a more ethereal passage where iridescent synth layers float to waltz with a morphic delicacy. All in contrast, this movement is of an astral tranquility. The breezes of the synths make shimmering arpeggios dance and energize the voices of the mermaids which chant and radiate an angelic serenity with suave and acute vocalizations which crisscross this sea of meditative serenity. A tranquility jostled by percussions which emerge from paradisiacal chants. We are at the 18th minute and the percussions gallop with a restrained but tangible frenzy, with the stroboscopic undulations of a line of chords which mold a melody revolving in a loop on a bubbling circular rhythm. Jerky-tonal hoops and anvil-tones percussions support this rhythmic structure as wild as melodious which skips with frantic frenzy for more than 5 minutes before the ethereal ambiences lead us to the cerebral rest of Wonder Spell.
Waking up in front of the sea, the synth keys which twirl at the opening of Aqua Fortis take refuge in a sequenced carousel to whirl in a stationary rhythmic structure. A line of quavering chords gets in. It's fluttering around among scattered percussion strikes, solidifying a harmonious structure caressed by layers of a discreet synth. The rhythm accentuates its flow and gradually unleashes its harmonic elements with twisted synth solos which camouflage the increasing velocity of percussion strikes and of buzzing pulsations. The race is wearing out on the shores of the oceans of contemplativity where the waves and the cries of the terns are lulled by the calls for serenity of the astral mermaids. We are at the 10th minute and the spiritual chants are lost in synth-guitar chords and percussions whose clicks resonate in felt envelopes, as if not to disturb the poetry of the moment. The percussions and the chords get more insistent, awakening bell tones which sparkle and twirl. These elements shape the birth of a pulsating rhythm which reconnects with the ashes of its introduction but whose slamming percussions are more present to add this hypnotic technoïd touch, unique to Indra's musical signature, to Aqua Fortis' finale.
Those who follow my columns since my beginnings know my attachment to Indra. Like an old friend, I have followed his development since his beginning. And if his Tantric Celebration's music always follows the same tangents, it still has this so poetic cachet that makes it something unique. It's magnetic, bewitching and above all very beautiful! MATANGI is in the line of Klaus Schulze's minimalist works, plus a seraphic touch.
Sylvain Lupari (April 4th, 2012) *****
Available at Indra's Bandcamp
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