Flora Luna offers an enjoyable ride in the lands of modern sequencing patterns in a vision of contemporary Tangerine Dream's OST
1 Sensemillia 6:21
2 Psychotronic 6:32
3 Lowtide 6:18
4 Fragrant Mountains 5:32
5 Zeitreisen 5:34
6 Sun Spirit 5:41
7 Sensorium 5:30
8 Gold Soul 6:30
9 Exodust 6:36
(DDL 54:35) (V.F.)
(TD's Electronic Rock style)
I missed the 3rd Lightform album; The Only Place for Us. So, there was no way I was going to miss this one! Sensemillia starts FLORA LUNA with a playful rhythm which is lying on good percussion effects and keyboard riffs almost imitating the loops of Manuel Göttsching, without the guitar. This rhythm is at the limit of a Techno Dance with a jerky stroboscopic effect which makes vibrating a very festive vision flirting with good electronic rock. If, like me, you appreciated the links that united Lightform's music with that of Tangerine Dream in Superluminal, hold your horses! From Danger in Dream to Tangerine Dream, FLORA LUNA is armed to the bone up to Exodust. And all along the way, you have to pay attention to details. Especially the many percussive effects hidden behind the staccatos of the sequencer. Always very inspired by the Logos and Poland albums from you know who, and Entrance, a real gem of modern Berlin School style, this project by Tim Darbyshire offers a tasty album whose rhythms are finely worked out in the shadow of the work of Robert Wittek and Alexander Guelfenburg during the Entrance album sessions. The nervous keys trotting in the tumult or in symbiosis are at the heart of the charms of this album which also shows a very melodious side from Lightform.
Psychotronic shows that Lightform also knows how to distance itself from its influences by composing quite interesting stuff. A two-headed rhythm structure, each direction of which rolls in parallel, initiates this good melody imbued with chords which sing on a large conveyor blowing up its bouncing keys in a good rhythmic symphony. Harmonious and pleasant to hear, Psychotronic jumps overflowing with its percussive effects. A very good title which precedes the majestic Lowtide and its structure à la Stratus IV (Entrance from Danger In Dream). We love? Gold Soul is just as attractive in its less fluid pace. Fragrant Mountains also clings to this kind of slow rhythm which flirts with the style of sentimental ballad. The mist and the ambiences which surround the percussive machine-guns of Fragrant Mountains still have these perfumes of DID. The harmonies hammered on an ice keyboard make of it an interesting title. The keys which jump on a mechanical carpet and generate these chaotic rhythmic patterns are always popular in the spasmodic structures of FLORA LUNA. It's therefore an armada of sequences, percussive effects and spontaneous palpitations that Zeitreisen leaps on our eardrums. This is another delicious title forgotten in the vaults of the duo Wittek & Guelfenburg. We change register with the circular bearings of Sun Spirit which sculpt a nice hyper-melodious Kraftwerk's style of melody. By far, the most FM title of this album. It's in the essences of Logos, the melodious section, that Sensorium clings to the pulsations of its bass line. And if we like to find parts of Logos in this album, Exodust will live up to your expectations.
Available for download only, and in 24 bit / 48 kHz audio quality that pays homage to the many leaping sequences, FLORA LUNA is an album that can be listened to pleasantly. Logos and Entrance fragrances are everywhere within 55 minutes of this album. It's like listening to a Tangerine Dream kind of OST. It may irritate those who are fed up with imitators, but Lightform does so in a context that takes advantage of the fact that the 9 tracks here last an average 6 minutes. I quite enjoyed it!
Sylvain Lupari (March 12th, 2020) ***¾**
Available at Lightform's Bandcamp
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