“The strength of this album is is this fluidity between all these styles which have a sweet perfume of TD's Miramar years”
1 Asylum Harbor 4:05
2 Across the Silent Seas 6:17
3 Touch the Sky 5:52
4 For the Minutes 5:09
5 Find the Tree 4:51
6 Why Don't You Answer 5:34
7 Geometry of Shadows 9:05
8 The Endless Road 5:04
9 Chasing Starlights 5:01
10 Awakened By Silence 5:31
11 Aqua Marine 4:28
12 My Silent Mystery 5:12
13 Amanyara 4:27
(CD 70:42) (V.F.)
(Melodic e-rock of the 90's)
Remove the saxophones and all of Linda Spa's wind instruments in the music of Tangerine Dream, the Miramar years, and the result would doubtless be at the sonic image of Tigerforest. As much incredible as it can seem; this group of the German musician Gunnar Spardel exists since 2007 and does not even appear on the famous encyclopedia of EM daily updated by Artemi Pugachov. What is wrong? What makes that 8 albums farther, the name of Tigerforest is absent in the media spheres of EM? Or almost! I had the album on my hard disk since a good little while and the first attempt has hardly incited me to write about it. I heard a kind of e-rock which exploited the same thematic core with 3 tracks sung. I afterward listened to the Podcast of July 17th, 2014 (that I advise you enormously to listen to) of the English magazine Sequences, and I was intrigued by a good and very TD style of electronic rock; Touch the Sky. The group? Tigerforest. Another track was also present on this broadcasted list, the very poetic Asylum Harbor. And I was intrigued at once by both paradoxes. I said to myself; well, well I have to dig more seriously into this album. A very good idea. Without saying that Tigerforest has reinvented the wheel, this group of Gunnar Spardel offers a very energetic EM with a rich sound creativity. THE TIDES OF DAY AND NIGHT is Tigerforest's 8th album. And this title reflects well enough the universe of an album where the kinds crisscross with such a flow as it is sometimes difficult to label the kinds. Except the very net resemblance with the period of Tangerine Dream's Turn of the Tides, what struck the most on this album is this very careful production whose very beautiful sound wealth which overflows on each piece of music, either by an avalanche of electronic tones, very energetic e-percussions, multi layers of synth to colours of romance or of violence and arrangements of which the subtle variances flow with a surprising symbiosis.
A strangely dramatic ambient track Asylum Harbor plunges us into a bottom sea with tones of ballasts which get lost bit by bit in an intense ambiospherical broth. The music is very immersive with dense synth layers which flow with thin sibylline voices and with notes in search of a melodic skeleton which seems to drown themselves in a profound abyssal fall. Too short? Not really because Across the Silent Seas takes back these moods of hadal claustrophobia to quietly emerge out of the oceanic depths with a timid rhythmic approach of which the growth remains very melodious. Light riffs and percussions which click with shyness are forcing a rhythm which stays prisoner of its astral envelope. The sensation of getting out of the tropical waters is as tangible as this sweet ethereal melody which joins us in our first breaths of air. It's there that I made a first link between the music of Tigerforest and the one of Turn of the Tides. And the striking Touch the Sky will root this perception. It's a solid e-rock where is only missing Jerome's guitar. We like? We shall certainly like the ferocious Find the Tree, The Endless Road, Amanyara and the very intense, we are at full ears here in a huge cacophonous e-rock, Chasing Starlights which offer a sensible balance between the leaden rhythms and the ethereal moods. This is what was missing in this period Miramar of Tangerine Dream! For the Minutes is also a strong e-rock, kind of Pat Benatar, with a beautiful small ambient passage, where the beautiful voice of Jennifer Herschman suits very well to this ambivalent universe of Tigerforest's electronic and ethereal rock. Why Don't you Answer is a charming ambient ballad where the voice of Kim Barry will awaken in us some recollections of Enya. This is a bit of New Age which is as delightful as Geometry of Shadows which is another sweet ballad with a poignant intro where synth tears are oozing into a dense ambiospherical veil rather dramatic. These ambiences to make crying a nail are fading away while Geometry of Shadows switches into a beautiful down-tempo fed by notes of a dreamy piano which fall in cascade in a rich sound texture and of which the abundance feeds both the ambiences and a soft rhythm rather astral. This exceeds the borders of New Age! The recipe of Tigerforest remains as simple as effective; Gunnar Spardel multiplies synth layers, by giving them most possible colours, in moods where roam a sonic fauna of quirky tones. So the textures are rich and assail our ears with kaleidoscopes of irradiant colours. Awakened by Silence is another sweet ballad which brings me closer to the very electro to folk style of Darsha Ambient. This is very beautiful and so much touching. Aqua Marine dips us back into loud, but always so musical, ambiences with a second part explosive of feelings. You doubtless have in mind a beautiful love scene where both lovers run towards them on a beautiful beach with a background immensely blue! This is the kind of music that would play. But everything of THE TIDES OF DAY AND NIGHT cannot always please me! And so, I won’t comment My Silent Mystery which is a big synth pop a la Duran Duran.
I was pleasantly surprised by this album of Tigerforest, both by the very professional approach of Gunnar Spardel and by the quality of his very energetic music which, nevertheless the electronic jumble of these- rocks, keeps a delicious cohesion between the progressions of ambiences towards the rhythms. Set apart its rich and very diversified sonic envelope, the other big strength of this album is this fluidity between all its styles. The mark of a good production. Good lively and melodious electronic rock; THE TIDES OF DAY AND NIGHT has all what it needs to please certainly those who loved this Miramar era from the Dream.
Sylvain Lupari (August 31st, 2014) ***½**
Available at Tigerforest Bandcamp
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