“From hard progressive e-rock to wild Electronica, Rainer Klein has this gift to extract the roots of feelings which hide under every pore of our skin”
1 Look up Your Eyes 7:15 2 Follow the Thread 5:45 3 The Constellation 10:22 4 Reverberation 7:43 5 Break Out 7:15 6 Flames 10:41 7 Inspired 12:06 8 The Mysterious 7:06 MellowJet Records| CD-r ot1601 (CD-r/DDL 68:13) (V.F.) (Symphonic, E-Rock, Electronica)
We can say what we we want, and no matter the styles, Rainer Klein has this gift to extract the roots of emotions which hide under every pore of our skin. The proof? These notes of piano which traces a path to nostalgia in the tumult and the rumblings of the opening of Look up Your Eyes! There are 30 seconds to the meter only that already the sound textures of CONSTELLATIONS AND THE RED THREAD FRONT swallow us. Like in Monument! Like in Genius! Breaths of big horns caress this melody, bringing sequences which flicker in its furrows. A line of bass makes, sneakily, its notes pound while the percussions put more weight to the emotionalism of the atmospheres. And these tears of guitar which squeak in the soft staccatos orchestrations are cementing the rather dramatic film approach to Look up Your Eyes. And what would be these textures without these ethereal voices which float as those of fallen angels and a passage of dark atmospheres which end in a crescendo of emotionalism with a furious guitar and its solos which pierce the senses? Here it is! You have the picture of the last Otarion album. From what I have read, this last album of Rainer Klein would be the conclusion of a trilogy begun with the splendid Genius in 2014. And it's very plausible because we find here these same ingredients which fed the charms of Genius and of Monument; catchy melodies, poignant piano, guitars with heart-rending solos as well as the pompous and enveloping orchestrations on a marriage of percussions and sequences which built rhythms sometimes progressive and\or symphonic rock and sometimes dance and\or Electronica but always in a cinematographic temperament.
Follow the Thread follows with a static rhythm forged by a movement of sequences which skip in a linear structure. The approach is similar to a ghostly rodeo which will explode for a good symphonic rock decorated with layers of old organ. Between its heavy rhythm and its seraphic atmospheres, the arrangements remain silky and the synth weaves a superb poignant melody which lead me back to those beautiful melodies that we heard on Genius. Heavy, dramatic and poignant! We are in the best phase of Otarion's universe. The Constellation begins its journey with a more electronic approach. Layers fall as these leaves deriving from its tree and the sequences sparkle and flash with their shadows which draw a more sibylline aura. The percussions which fall create a suspicion of Electronica which becomes a reality when the sequencing pattern is wrapped by orchestrations' momentums and by a greater swiftness of the percussions. We are in a good Electronica mood where the percussive perfumes of Jean-Michel Jarre are peppering the harmonious orchestrations of Moonbooter beneath the soft sedative fragrances of absent voices. I liked it, even if it is not in my tastes! There is a little something explosive in this title, as well as in Reverberation, and its harmonious approach of sequences on a background of a rhythm of dance which does very Still Alive (Adieu) of Moonbooter. Except for the very trance and dance Break Out, which drains as much our eardrums as our feet, every title of CONSTELLATIONS AND THE RED THREAD FRONT lies within an evolutionary envelope where rhythms and atmospheres follow one another with additional elements of swiftness.
From symphonic rock to cinematographic music while going in dynamic Electronica, Otarion takes pleasure to exploit these elements inside the parameters of time in each composition. Flames is a very good example and proposes a good symbiosis between Electronica and a solid e-rock with a guitar loaded of solos as striking as the riffs are lively. It sounds a bit like Jerome Froese, although that sounds also like dynamite inspired by the excellent Jean-Michel Jarre's Chronology. Inspired adopts a little the elements of Flames with a big symphonic rock (the splendid layers of organ will seduce the fans of Procol Harum) which feeds of electronic candies (sequences travel in banks of fog and voices) on a long structure which proposes passages as meditative as explosive. Rainer Klein keeps constantly on the alert and our emotions need to breathe, to redo the height. And it's there that the conclusion leads us to the very silky, but dark, The Mysterious among which the slow ambient breezes and these notes of a piano always so pensive as those of Vangelis seem to drive us to the next stage of Otarion.
Sylvain Lupari (June 22nd, 2016) *****
Available on MellowJet Records
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