“Faithfull to Richard Bone's eclectic conceptual approach, Images from a Parallel World is an album of a stunning diversity”
1 A Deeper Shade of Sleep 6:29
2 Eucalyptico 6:16
3 Dadaelia 6:07
4 Trans Mutual Sunshine 6:47
5 Cathedral Spires 4:58
6 System Wide Slumber 5:57
7 Simple Sirius 4:17
8 Eight Sufis Swinging 6:35
9 Lavacicles 5:31
10 Lithographic Lines Love 5:01
11 Of Flowers and Fools 4:48
12 Atma Is 4:24
(CD/DDL 67:34) (V.F.)
(Versatile range of harmonious EM)
A Deeper Shade of Sleep kicks off Richard Bone's new musical adventure on AD Music by a concerto for angelic voices. Chords in tones of harpsichord or baroque guitars waddle in the harmonic furrow of the choirs, tracing two lines of parallel harmonies which melt in the ear with an astonishing musical poetry. While the choirs begin to hum, percussions are seasoning the absent rhythm. The soft hits give the title a form of cerebral trance that layers of synth caress with their vampiric veils. And A Deeper Shade of Sleep drinks of chimeric sitar, slowly plunging into a phase of electronic rock cleverly manipulated by a mesh of percussions, both manual and on sticks, and sequences that stir a trapped rhythm in its astral waves. From the top of its 6 minutes, A Deeper Shade of Sleep is the reflection of IMAGES FROM A PARALLEL WORLD. Like a musical anaconda, the music of Richard Bone's latest opus changes of skin, combining eclecticism and melody in structures that keep their embryonic forms alive. If at the beginning we get lost in this strange electronic folklore, we are quite easily seduced with this carousel of harmonies which constantly turns on structures as hard to grasp than a snake. If there are titles a little simplistic, I am thinking in particular of Eucalyptico, Lithographic Lines Love and Of Flowers and Fools with light rhythms full of liveliness, synths with catchy harmonies and beautiful orchestrations, the rest is much convincing than impressive with a host of titles which deserve a further investigation of the ears.
Dadaelia is a good ambient track where the ends of each chord are fragmented into multiple shimmering mirrors which ring and resonate in a void as dark as the pulsations of a bass line, thus tracing the slow agony of 6 nice minutes of ambient music. Trans Mutual Sunshine sinks its pain in the morphic ashes of Dadaelia before mutating into a good lunar down-tempo where the glass chords, and their shadows, forge the shroud of a nice ballad for restless nights. More fragile, Cathedral Spiers is a beautiful lunar melody which clings to a mesh of drummed percussions. System Wide Slumber is a monument of ambiences which caresses the most youthful dreams. The synth layers are smooth and float with such a state of weightlessness that it nails us to our daydreams. And the seraphic choirs… Oh how beautiful it is. Simple Sirius is a little sunny melody with xylophoned percussions which give an island freshness to this title which could very well serve as the background for a documentary on penguins. It's a bit in the same genre as Eucalyptico, except that there is a little something that hooks. Eight Sufis Swinging is a macabre procession which changes of skin finely before falling into a rather suggestive kind of blues. This is the kind of title that we don't expect that we don't see coming, especially with the brilliant Arabic orchestrations, and which ends up charming, if not disturbing. Ditto for Lavacicles whose intro is just as sinister but whose evolution surprises with its layers of rhythms and harmonies which follow the contiguity of the intro. Atma Is surprises us with his approach of organic hip-hop, showing all the eclecticism and versatility of Richard Bone on IMAGES FROM A PARALLEL WORLD.
Do you remember Michael Stearns' Plunge? This is sort of what this album reminds me of. It's an album of astonishing diversity where all facets of EM are visited, except Berlin School. We find here synth-pop, down-tempo, black and cosmic ambient set with good lunar harmonies. It's a beautiful album with pearls in it that fans of Berlin School should take a listen to.
Sylvain Lupari (June 17th, 2013) ***½**
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