“This is a great album on a a clever mixture of ambient and sequencer-based EM that I have listed in my 2009's Top 10”
1 Cradle of Life 14:06
2 The Story 5:28
3 At the Dawn of Life 6:21
4 In the Skies 11:35
5 The Vastness of Space 5:31
6 Galactic Traveller 6:46
7 Sunrise on FarPoint Station 6:42
8 Heroes 6:53
9 Giants in the Skies 8:01
(CD/DDL 71:27) (V.F.)
(Berlin & Netherlands Schools)
It's in a complete metallic anarchy that the first track, Cradle of Life, begins. Metal on metal, in an ambience stuffed of cosmic breaths, the track feels one's way along a corridor of harmony, shaped by choirs of which breaths get entangled in oblong synth layers. What could we expect more from an introductory title for a concert presented in a planetarium? BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF TWILIGHT is the last one of a series of concerts that Ron Boots performed in planetariums during the last years. Accompanied by FD Projekt (Frank Dorittke) on guitars, the Dutch synthesist offers in this album his vision of a parallel world with music which mixes deliciously ambient passages with numerous lively structures.
If Cradle of Life's intro is corrosive, its awakening and blossoming develops into a superb ambient passage worth of Chronos' sublime landscapes.
A bass awakens a structure of tearful synthesized breaths next to a series of pulsations which plunge Cradle of Light towards a structure more progressive rock than electronic. Frank Dorittke's guitar is feeding a good rhythm shaped from a keyboard and its cosmic phases, while the percussions are hammering a steady rhythm. It's under the timeless loops of The Story, rolling in loops in a cosmic corridor, that Ron Boots explains the vision of his musical conception around the album. A track that breathes on a quiet musical structure filled of flickering sound effects and which slides lovingly towards the superb At the Dawn of Life. Its honeyed structure, where the ethereal ambience of infinite spaces is living through synth's crystalline arpeggios, floats between two sphere. Then, the electronic drums make resound its tight skins in the cosmic borders that illuminate our imagination. In the Skies dive directly towards a rhythm livened up by nervous sequences which hiccup on a jerky rhythm hammered by good electronic percussions under a magnificent Mellotron coat. Synth solos fuse from everywhere and are joined by Dorittke's biting guitar which adds much more power to a loud and vigorous track. These solos crisscross a furious rhythmic which quietly runs out of pace and drifts in an ambient structure. Bouncing pulsations set up a rhythmic revival which will be a bit less vigorous, but just as weightier with a very acuteness guitar which is melting marvellously to Ron Boots' solos in what becomes a very good fusion of electronic and progressive music. After the very atmospheric and enigmatically strange The Vastness of Space, Galactic Traveller presents a somber pace sprinkled of hopping arpeggios which float in suspension in a cosmic universe where the synth sounds predominate over solos of apocalyptic breathes which scan the space of their intense musical beams. It sounds like a contemporary Blade Runner on a very soft cosmic beat.
After a morphic intro, Sunrise on FarPoint Station appears from cosmic mists with a series of percussions filled by the echoes of their shadows, shaping rhythm with heavy pulsations under the hold of an opaque Mellotron veil. A not so common track where the rhythm waves from a good bass line and is running in cascade over a stagnant nebulosity where the metallic flittings of percussions plus an ochre synth are the beginnings of a strange cosmic melody. Very moving, Heroes is a title which perfectly depicts its conceptual orientation with a soft tune from juxtaposed breaths. One of the breaths adopts the tune of a solitary flute that whistles its harmonies above the Mellotron's mists. Percussions resound with their echoes among fanciful choirs which hum with delicacy and compassion this melodious musical piece that reach its highlight with Frank Dorittke’s somewhat lonely guitar. One of the very beautiful melodies of 2009 where nothing is left to random, not even these small bells which coat Heroes of its so sensitive cachet. With its Floydian spirit, Giants in the Skies is a skilful mixture of progressive blues and contemporary electronic music with the excellent guitar of FD Project which spits heavy sensual solos. Lascivious and heavy beats are living in this musical setting where the keyboards plunge us into the heart of Wish you Were Here.
BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF TWILIGHT is another jewel signed Ron Boots. The Dutch synthesist offers a clever mixture of an ambient electronic music which is livened up by sober sequences and also supported by good electronic percussions. There are wonderful titles in this musical offering which caresses the romantic steams of contemporary electronic music while flirting with a more progressive rock approach with Frank Dorittke's presence on guitars. A very beautiful album which is listed in my 2009's Top 10!
Sylvain Lupari (January 27th, 2010) ****½*
Available at Groove NL
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