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Writer's pictureSylvain Lupari

Parallel Worlds & Dave Bessell Dystopia (2018)

Updated: Sep 20, 2022

“Dark and troubling, Dystopia is an album of cinematic atmospheres which belongs to  horror movies' ambiences”

1 Cipher 6:40 2 Filament 9:50 3 Underclouds 6:56 4 Into The Distance 8:50 5 Forest of Stars 8:56 6 Mutagen 5:37 7 Devoid 3:51 8 Mycelium 10:01

(CD/DDL 60:41) (V.F.)

(Dark ambient cinematic music)

It's with dark winds, some with a tinge of demonic voices, that Cipher introduces us to DYSTOPIA. The murmurs of a river of tones, clatter and howling adorn a structure whose signature is recognizable since the famous Morphogenic. Three keyboard riffs divert our attention from this Mephistophelic universe around the first minute. A suspended melody reigns over these atmospheres and guides Cipher to an ambient, yet danceable, rhythm where the boundaries of King Crimson and Redshift have never been so close to each other. Scary elements, scenery from beyond the grave, spectral melody and rhythm flirting with a soft techno; Here are the main elements of an album that may only be the legitimate suite to this disturbing Morphogenic, appeared on DiN label in 2012. Built around 8 chapters of an average length of 7 minutes, the music of DYSTOPIA disturbs. Its approach is dark with percussive elements that flirt with an organic entity and where the tears and blades of guitar, from Node's Dave Bessell, forge a spectral universe and certainly cinematographic. The arrangements are as ingenious and complex as the rhythms are intricate. Ambient or slightly animated by foundations constantly destabilized, they walk in the shadows of Redshift and /or Node with Ramp's filaments of anxiety. A charming and scary universe ideal for an evening fire in a cemetery, DYSTOPIA charms as much as troubles.

Filament also proposes this rhythmic approach whose evolutions remain within a structure that is both ambient and dance. Keyboard riffs, smothered and resonant beats, as well as slamming percussion; the structure joins a huge bass line that extends its vampiric shadow. The movement is metamorphosed with subtle variations, but its environment is dedicated to film music with very good arrangements.

Moreover, its introduction is carried by a flight of violins that sculpt a floating atmosphere, like a large river in suspension with an undulating flow. In addition, Underclouds sticks more to the structure and ambiences of Cipher. Inspired by William Gibson's dark novel, Neuromancer, DYSTOPIA sweeps from one title to another, each time bringing a more disturbing element. Into The Distance bathes in moods of incantations for black magic with a wild rhythm that explodes in the middle of its 9 minutes. The vision is very cinematic of a film like The Tenant or Rosemary's Baby. Two movies from Roman Polanski. Can there be a ballad in this album? Tender and haunting, with a little chthonic zest, Forest of Stars offers one! But it's a ballad sitting on a structure of atmospheres tied in these amazing percussive elements from Bakis Sirros. A keyboard lays down some climbing chords coated with a dubious presence of a six-string and its fleeting layers. The further we go; the more Forest of Stars reveals a veil of intensity mounted by these sepulchral arrangements that carry DYSTOPIA from one grave to another. Mutagen is one of the highlights of this album. Torn between ever gloomier atmospheres and phases of rhythms as intense as wild, the music filled our ears with guitar riffs, and their rock resonances, and percussions that slam like blows of baton on a skin of metal. Horror-like arrangements and a strange gloomy melody come into play in this structure where dance impulses for Zombies on Methadone morph into a comatose journey. Powerful! Devoid is a slow title that could be the evilest face of Forest of Stars. There is a John Carpenter's little something which is very attractive on this title. From its 10 minutes, Mycelium ends DYSTOPIA with a structure that is as elusive as ever, where the rich elements of ambiences are torn between structures of rhythm like those of Cipher or Filament. Welcome to the universe of Parallel Worlds & Dave Bessell!

Available in 500 copies, DYSTOPIA is an album of cinematic atmospheres that belongs to the horror cinema. The Bessell/Sirros tandem weaves here a universe where all the parallel passages to the chthonian societies are open during the 61 minutes. The orchestrations and the arrangements in the ambiances are woven in terror while the guitar riffs and its iodine vapors that float with those of modular synth throw a Mephistophelic aura to this universe where a fragile brain could be lost forever, so much the details, especially at the level of the percussion elements, and the moments of tension are accurately portrayed. A great album where madness finds its measure!

Sylvain Lupari (September 7th, 2018) ****½* SynthSequences.com

Available on DiN

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