“This one is a killer! With a skillful mixture of IDM, E-rock and cosmic ambient music, this Cosmosonic is, and by far, the most beautiful opus from Moonbooter”
1 LIFO 5:05 2 Caught by Melancholy 7:15 3 I remembered Tomorrow 6:17 4 Within Time Machine 6:55 5 33 years Later 3:52 6 Cosmic Thunder 9:35 7 Now and Then 7:12 8 Inside Space 5:51 9 Outside Space 4:04 10 Anatal 4:43 11 Perfect Stranger 6:49 12 Follow M 6:49 MellowJet | mb1801
(CD/DDL 74:27) (V.F.) (IDM, E-Rock, Cosmic Music)
That's what happens when we take the time to savor an album! We hang on to structures where the mystery and the melody are merging with elegance. And all that seemed to us average at the beginning, takes another proportion with the order of the tracks and some other listening. Between his IDM, his E-rock and his cosmic music styles, Bernd Scholl always manages to charm an audience which identifies with one of these styles especially because of his strong melodic presence. And if an album could harmonize all these kinds? COSMOSONIC is the one! On about 75 minutes of a music of which the common link is the strong presence of synths and of synth solos, this last album of Moonbooter reaches an unhoped-for nirvana where the fan of E-rock eventually ended to like his feisty sound of dance style music and vice versa. A tour de force which makes of this most beautiful and the most complete album of Moonbooter.
A sonic wave coming from the nothingness wraps a beautiful lively sequence which skips in solo. A pulsation dimmed and forged like an effect of a tongue that we slam in the palate is grafted to this structure simple and motorik, beating in countersense and not at all on the same pace. Other elements of percussions converge on the introduction of LIFO, giving two senses to a music which goes for a good phase of EDM. Effects of voices erode by radioactivity give then a light aspect of psy dance-music, while definitively LIFO takes off in mode Dance with an approach crossed with a good E-rock. Heavy of its big juicy chords and livened up by a jewel of percussion effects of all tones, the rhythm is as lively as melodious with a kind of techno for zombies marinated in THC. From then on, LIFO sets the tone to a stunning melodious and highly worked EM album. With its riffs of the 70's dance music, Caught by Melancholy is a hymn to dance very faithful to the signature of Moonbooter. Very harmonious elements of the Jive years from Tangerine Dream breathes here, as well as on other titles among the much fiery "33 years Later", the kind of thing which is going to make you run out of breath. As in each album of the Cosmos series, Moonbooter manages to lay down some beautiful pearls by linking Berliner EM style to hymns of dance a little less deafening. Like the superb I remembered Tomorrow and its heavy and slow rhythm which is clubbed by very nice synth pads from a synth forgotten in the studios of Le Parc. This is the kind of thing that brings you to another level. And it's not the only one here. Within Time Machine is a wonderful ballad which escapes from the depths of an opening soaked of a nebulous painting among which the contemporary tones and the structure have nothing to envy to the vintage years. The rhythm is heavy and slower than in I remembered Tomorrow, which is more in a down-tempo style, with a dense bluish mist which surrounds a beautiful melodic procession and some very good percussive effects which assist the heavy, slow and stunning percussions. They are two very good movements of lasciviousness cerebral before that 33 years Later and its very Dance music style, which survives by jerky pulsations and especially jingles of percussions, gets too fast for my feet. Bernd Scholl throws tiles of harmonies which transcend the insane hammerings of the rhythms of lead which fill the surface of COSMOSONIC.
Except that this last opus of Moonbooter is more than a simple album of dance. The German musician gives a lot of space here to some very cosmic vibes, like in the opening of I remembered Tomorrow and Cosmic Thunder. This other superb title is simply addicting. Our spirit is tickled by its slow procession which is majestically fed by wonderful solos of synth and of organ which calls back the most beautiful days of Klaus Schulze … and even more. If the rhythm seems imperfect, the ambiences which surround it correct this situation up until the complete ripening around the 6th minute. But it's too late, we are already hooked because of these solos and effects, like these thunderclaps and these layers of organ, which petrify us on the spot from the first seconds of what I qualify as being the most beautiful title of Moonbooter's repertoire. Period! "Now and Then" is as much livened up and catchy as "Caught by Melancholy" while that "Inside Space" is a title of ambiences pushed by effects of reverberations on a nest of quiet floating waves. Arpeggios ringing like a concerto for harp feed a little a structure which tries to wake up and whose finale is crushed by a big radioactive breath. This element of intensity propels "Outside Space" towards a mixture of e-rock and dance music. One of the titles, with "Caught by Melancholy" and the fiery "Anatal" and its spiral of resonant arpeggios which knocks out the senses, that I liked after more than one or two listening. The female voice here sounds very TD, period Atomic Seasons. "Perfect Stranger" is another very catchy and wonderful ballad on this album which doesn't stop at all to charm, while that "Follow Me" concludes it album with a lively structure where e-rock and dynamic IDM mix their possible charms on a distance of 6:49 minutes. It's already finished and one dives back into the styles, all charms included, of this solid album from Moonbooter. COSMOSONIC is, and by far, his most beautiful opus and a blow of charm to begin 2018. Hold this title in mind because it could very well appear on my Top10 of 2018!
Sylvain Lupari (January 12th, 2018) ****¾*
Available at MellowJet Records
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