“Psybient and psychill styles flow in a musical canvas with a delicious organic texture”
1 Celestial Needles 7:12
2 The Keepers of Ways 7:18
3 Gates Between Worlds 8:32
4 Remains 6:08
5 Dismantle the Hologram 9:34
6 Crystal Technology 9:48
(DDL 48:33) (V.F.)
(Ambient, Psybient, Psychill)
A synth shadow, divided into two sound shades, covers the opening of Celestial Needles with its buzzing wing. Very much like the title, distant streaks, whose roars can barely be heard, have that tonal smell of metal squealing under an increasingly invasive bass layer. One hears tinkling arpeggios. They shape a short line of evasive melody that floats between the pulses of the bass layer, structuring the base of an ambient rhythm that hums lightly of its rubbery vision. The synth layers, still in two shades, continue to drift us into a nothingness where a new sequenced structure rings that is more harmonic than rhythmic. Electronic noises adorn this panorama where the passing intensity of the ambient rhythm remains muffled between these layers of lunar orchestrations which are the atmospheric engine of Celestial Needles and of the album in general. I found little information about Path of Silence, this new artist that the label Synphaera Records brings out of anonymity for the greatest pleasure of curious ears and followers of newness. Vladimir Sokolović is a Serbian musician who makes electronic music (EM) of ambient style with a touch of contemporary psychedelia. That is, with a host of bizarre tones and soft rhythms that crumble into amorphous paths. And that's the essence of ANCESTRAL LIGHT that the opening track initiates with a calling card that reflects the next 40 minutes of this new album-download offered by the American West Coast label in an exceptional sound quality for a download. Soft rhythms, not to write lifeless, in a luxuriant sound fauna where a 3rd ear would be necessary and where the music weds the senses of the titles are the prerogative of this other delicious find of the Californian label. Psybient and psychill styles are flowing in a musical canvas where golden and steel blue colors get mix with a delicious organic texture, would be a more appropriate way to describe in one sentence the 48 minutes of this very beautiful album that will captivate the fans of the genre.
The Keepers of Ways offers a meditative music with synth waves undulating in a suspended mass of sound. A psychill as we say with synth layers hiding nice voice humming, hence its meditative aspect, and good lines of evasive harmonies which roll in loops on a structure of rhythm humming discreetly in symbiosis with the swaying of the sonic decor. Gates Between Worlds follows the same textural path with filaments, both rhythmic and harmonic, that snake through the ambience with a two-way velocity. That gives this sensation of rhythm sustained versus non-rhythm that comes and goes from its more organic texture in a more chthonian setting. Remains lays down a nice psybient texture with Vangelis-like synth layers that have this fine ode to apocalypse in the timbres. The bass layer is as seductive as chloroformed in this beautiful track from ANCESTRAL LIGHT. The more one moves forward in this album of Path of Silence and the more the Serbian musician seems at more ease by offering the best for the end. The twisted waves that adorn the opening of Dismantle the Hologram, what an appropriate title, let go a bouquet of harmonies that twirl in weightlessness with a delicious texture of lisp in the tone. The setting imposes a superb modern psychedelic vision with a lunar orchestral texture where many organic effects sparkle and whistles the brighter side of the melody. And these lines of melodies that meander nonchalantly through its space-time contort themselves displaying their contrasting effects like the most arrogant of peacocks. A superb track that literally takes us to the core of its meaning. The contrasts of refulgence that adorn the opening of Crystal Technology add a sibylline texture to this snoring bass line that stigmatizes its amorphous evolution in a pool of tones in tune with the expectations our ears have versus psybient and/or psychill textures. Palpitations stick in short lines that come and go and whose echo and reverberation effects become more crisp with its organic texture. This title without precise rhythm and without anesthetic effect cultivates its interest with these psychedelic chirps which melt marvelously on this bass layer's bed which is more favorable to the reverie of another universe where everything dissolves under our ears. Working its 9 minutes to the maximum, Vladimir Sokolović adds fuel in a final that commands us to play Celestial Needles again. So, we go back to the discovery of another good find from Synphaera Records that requires more than one listen. Not because ANCESTRAL LIGHT is a bit complex! No, because it's just too good in the way it's made by this newcomer called Path of Silence. A name to remember for the fans of the genre.
Sylvain Lupari (May 8th, 2022) *****
Available at Synphaera Bandcamp
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