“I admit that its first 15 minutes are not easy to tame and once passed that we enter in a flawless musical garden”
1 Nabhadruma 27:26
2 Pallavatara 27:17
(CD/DDL 54:43) (V.F.)
(Avant-gardism Berlin School)
Let's separate the two belligerents. One makes the sequences and the other, the harmonies and the orchestrations. The one below is Frédéric Gerchambeau. In Nabhadruma he shapes a first short line of hesitant sequences that he turns into a loop. Too harmonious, too fluid, he takes away a jumping key. Ah, the movement hobbles! He sticks a shadow on it, creating the illusion that a line and a half turns in a more jerky motion. That gives an unbalanced Berlin School! Obviously, why be a little melodious when flirting with the abstract side of EM? FG takes a chisel to cut an angle and give it a square appearance which embarks with the multiple loops of the sequencer in a rhythmic disharmony where in only the synth is missing. Now let's take the top. It's my friend Bertrand Loreau who begins by weaving silky enveloping orchestrations. I hear a cello make its shy when the sequences start to hobble. This moment, Bertrand leaves it to the dexterity of Frédéric. In return, he also weaves these synth loops which coo in a phase where the sequencer dominates the sound space. Sound lavas thicken in the background with whistling bubbles. This moving magma leads me to say to myself; How long has it been since I listened to Invisible Connection by Vangelis? Because the influences of the Greek musician abound here. Finally, and after 6 minutes, the French duo establishes a bond of complicity, accentuating this abstract Berlin School. Remnants of Blade Runner are besieging our ears as the sequencer keeps stumbling. Its descent into the confines of non-rhythm monitors this mass limp which is caressed by gentle compassionate orchestrations. It's around 15 minutes, and Nabhadruma is working on changing its appearance. It's done with a lot of small spirals imagined in a synth and sequencer union that spin with a propensity to become an axis of jerky rhythm. I consider it the best segment of Nabhadruma with a visionary Bertrand Loreau who tortures his buttons and his threads in order to root out a texture that is more musical than abstract. The solos come with that vintage sound. They are cooing on a sound mass implanted with this union between the instruments of the two antagonists in an abstract tirade which nevertheless retains its power to charm.
That's it, Loreau & Gerchambeau have reached this level where abstract EM has become listenable. After two very demanding albums on our capacity for assimilation, ANANTAYAMO offers you a first real test of patience with the first half of Nabhadruma, while the other 40 minutes are more affordable with phases influenced by Klaus Schulze, in the second and sovereign half of Pallavatara which is much more musical. First, its first 15 minutes belong to Bertrand making the sound magician with his various synths. Solos sing over an ambient rhythmic structure decorated by a chirping sequence, like basic electronic languages, and synth orchestrations rolled into loops. Its shadow is clearly better defined in order to create a minimalist rhythm that is pleasant to listen to. Bertrand establishes his zones of charms with an arpeggio song over a bed of orchestrations whose sheets float with lunar and morphic textures. Throughout its development, Pallavatara offers a cadence which increases significantly on the sound effects of the two French musicians. The 15th minute is a secret door to the world of Klaus Schulze where the typical sequences of Frédéric Gerchambeau serve as a bed for a Bertrand Loreau in great shape in a phase visibly inspired by Body Love.
ANANTAYAMO's press guide does not do it justice! I admit that its first 15 minutes are not easy to tame. Once past that, our ears embark on a genre that is more and more accessible, always convoluted but nothing more, where musicality extends from the second half of Nabhadruma. Then we enter a flawless musical garden where the splendor of sequences, arpeggios and synth solos is more than an auditory vision, a bit like in Catvaratempo.
Sylvain Lupari (01/02/21) ****¼*
Disponible chez Groove nl
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