“This artist is quite talented and Sacrifice shows it in each aspect of writing, of beat programming and music”
1 Ice Garden 9:30 2 Late Night Walk 10:37 3 Stream of Thoughts 10:00 4 Night Wanderer 5:04 5 Time Ruler 15:33 6 December Thirteenth 10:03 7 Folow your Dreams 17:16
J Dan Project Music (DDL 78:05)
(Progressive New Berlin School style)
Effect of jerky breaths from machines, undulating industrial grumbles with a seraphic voice fulled of astral sensuality and rough voices articulating with difficulty the words Frozen Dreams and/or Ice Garden; the introduction of Ice Garden defends all the future paradoxes of SACRIFICE. A rhythm, at the limits of a down-tempo, slow and magnetizing comes alive under a layer of voice that is lost in the fragrances of a synth and its scents of psychedelism. Gradually, Ice Garden sinks into territories where it will be difficult to come out. Not really in the dynamics of rhythm nor in an ambient approach, this first title of SACRIFICE is hard to describe. A groove not groove, a funk that lacks a little of vitamins! The rhythm inspires a march of penguins tumbling in dunes filled with sharp pebbles. Synths extend rivers of effects and mists full of voices and of vaporous products filled with illicit substances. And each of the titles of this SACRIFICE is filled of it. There are filled of good synth solos which abound as well in all structure, including this one. And they will delight our ears all along an album that beautifully bears the mark of J Dan Project, as we have discovered with Childhood Nature. Although SACRIFICE will ask your ears to work a little harder. There are artists we don't talk about enough and Jarosław Danielski is one of them. I enjoyed so much his musical signature in Childhood Nature and also on Sequential Friends, two albums released by Generator pl, that I asked him about his SACRIFICE album which is only available as download on his Bandcamp site. And I remember very well that Jarosław had warned me that this album was quite different from the other two. And how! I discovered a much more daring album with a creative EM where each title offers its surprises, listening after listening. An album of pure pleasure for fans of synthesizers, with very good solos, and sequences, which scatters its lines of rhythms with a level of difficulty to depict. Built a little on the same model as Ice Garden, Late Night Walk settles in our ears with a guttural reverb and chords lost in the scale. Some long croaky graffiti are stretching their apocalyptic vision, kind of creatures from hell rising to the surface, jingling and especially lines of high-pitched sounds are at the heart of an introductory torment. A rhythmic structure, like Death from Walter Christian Rothe (Let the Night Last Forever), seeks to move forward, but always returns to its starting point. The sound fauna is rich and creative ideas are teeming. After a short interruption, a series of riffs announce an electronic rock that will contain its fury under an avalanche of solos as well as sound and percussive effects. The synth layers suggest thin lines of heavenly voices, but they seem to get lost in this rich setting that will exploit the 10 minutes of Late Night Walk. Stream of Thoughts could have been called flow of rhythms, so much they are flowing along its 10 minutes. As usual, the structure is convoluted by its hue and its many rhythmic flows that shake it more than they animate it. It's a spasmodic movement that is growing. Aside from percussions, there are those sequences that are panting and jingle under a sound firmament filled of piercing streaks. The sounds mimic those of a station and its hubbub of industrial noises.
Constantly in this phenomenon of rhythm always to be reconstitute, Night Wanderer moves on with jolts in the effects of ambiances and with quavers in the harmonies so difficult to restrain. The piano is more melodious here than any melody found in SACRIFICE. Especially with these orchestrations which give it an unusual emotional weight. Time Ruler now! A piano note falls. Its radiance serves as a bed for a delicate melody, whose notes stumble in sinuous psychedelic vapors. Organic effects and philharmonic strata melt into this decor that has become hallucinogenic and whose finale dies in the tumult of a good line of sequences with a vertiginous course. Time Ruler then becomes a very good Berlin School with very Tangerine Dream intonations, I hear a phantom melody à la Phaedra, on a lively and circular flow with a subtle variation in the tones when it completes its loop. The introductory vibes cling to this breathtaking pace and the synth continues its mission by weaving harmonic solos that make me think of some very good Peter Baumann mixed with Walter Christian Rothe. This Berliner structure ends in a kind of tonal confusion from which emerges a slow electronic rock well chromed by juicy synth solos. This 5-minute section is as rich as each landmark on this album. Apart from these good solos, I like this grumbling bass. It's castanets that push the pace of December Thirteenth to follow a jerky evolution and its blossoming into a tasty Bolero. They also survive this introduction of sound oddities. Its structure is minimalist motorik art with bass percussive sequences which move by gathering various tones, including organic grunts. Flowing layers and strata with piercing tones adorn the soundscape which goes more towards a reinvented psychedelism than the usual meditative model of the Berlin School. Castanets add a very festive color that constantly charms. Folow your Dreams is an ambient exploratory title that primarily features a dark and hoarse voice that articulates words and slips of phrase about sacrifices. These words resound under a reverberating cloud of effects, laments of spectra with scarlet roaring, floating pads with steel dyes and a variety of sound effects. The contrasts are always so seductive with chirps of sparrows, resonant layers like the austere complaints of a cathedral organ and with orchestrations. We follow this ambient procession until the voice tells us; Follow your dreams. It's there that the effects of white noise put discord and the rhythm makes us jump (literally). Jerky and spasmodic, with nice effects which sound like vapors undulating like flames over a Theremin or on the Martenot waves. A final all in excess! A final that could not be better for an album which requires a few plays, and which is just great.
Sylvain Lupari (May 28th, 2019) *****
Available at J Dan Project's Bandcamp
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