“Line on Glass is a pretty good album with rhythms and ambiences which cross the universes of Robert Schroeder and Software”
1 Fall 10:41
2 Tunnel 8:12
3 Curve Dance 8:54
4 Crystal Peak 8:34
5 Trimming Sinus 13:42
6 Ophelia 12:28
7 Quaver 15:41
(CD-R/DDL 78:13) (V.F.)
(New Berlin School, IC Music)
The more I discover the German label SynGate and the more I discover an electronic universe which reminds me the beautiful years of Innovative Communication which brought to light the obscure talents of the New Berlin School of the 80's. After Fratoroler and its superb Looking Forward, it's now Thomas Meier's turn, alias TM Solver, to seduce my ears with his 4th album which surfs on the wings of the New Berlin School with harmonious fluids as much mesmerizing as its morphic rhythms. Laid on 7 titles which fill the 80 minutes available on those thin silvery discs, LINE ON GLASS is a delicious musical journey which revives our souvenirs of the IC era with rhythms and ambiences which cross the universes of Robert Schroeder and Mergener/Weisser, alias Software.
Hypnotic and enchanting, Fall brings us back straight in the lands of an oneiric New Berlin School. Some fine drumming of sequences and light riffs of a synth the of which chords are bursting such as drops in space introduce an opening that will walk along its 11 minutes on a great morphic rhythm. This cosmic rhythm, vitamined by soft percussions and caressed at random by the tears of a cello, swirls in clouds of mists and celestial vocals. Slowly this delicious album quietly forges a pleasant entrance to our ears. And it's without waiting that Tunnel follows upon Fall with its caravan of keys suspended between two senses, drawing a slow and discreet procession which floats among metallic breezes and deformed hoops to opaline tones. Metallic timbre keys collide and resound to open of Curve Dance, the first title of here to offer a little more accentuated rhythm. But that remains a rather soft rhythm with sequences which jump up with restraint, multiplying their sound impacts on a structure which moves forward stealthily. Percussions with hits as felted as metallic are ringing throughout this musical route that a synth to ghostly breezes scratches with hollow howlings and silvery breaths. Crystal Peak is a good title with some slightly funky curves where a hopping rhythm is constantly cuddled by synth lines full of fruity melodies and harmonized choirs. That's extremely enchanting and the sequences with forms of hollow percussions sound so much like a crossing between the digital universe of Klaus Schulze and the one more harmonious of Schroeder that it’s a real delight.
No matter the variety of rhythms here, they are always dressed of a hypnotic veil. Trimming Sinus adopts a little the tangent of Curve Dance with a rhythm which hiccups finely through a synth with fluty melodies. This delicately spasmodic rhythm follows an evolutionary tangent with multicolor and multi sonic keys which skip and tinkle in an enchantress forest covered with suave melodies blown by a lyrical synth which frees its voices, lamentations of cello and mystic mists with a harmonious approach which calls back the transition era of Klaus Schulze. Another strong title is Ophelia, a long and beautiful lunar ballad which reminds me a little of Robert Schroeder's dreamy approaches in the beginning of his career. An acoustic guitar scatters its melancholic notes which float in ethereal breezes and in the whispers of felted cymbals which mold a finely hatched spiral. She swirls in an enchanting setting, catching synth chords which sparkle into silvery breaths while discreet pulsations are shaping a slow morphic tempo which pivot with a contagious euphoria. Always so melodious and evasive, the synth infuses beautiful lines of sea spray and electronic poetry which sing and roam around percussions became a little more slamming but never noisy, confining Ophelia in a beautiful dreamlike ballad stuffed with a synth to thousand and one foggy melodies. It's really beautiful. Quaver is a delicious journey into the embryonic times of the New Berlin School era and the cosmic rhythms of Software. The intro is built around a strange frenzy of an intergalactic jungle which encircles a bumbling sequential movement. Little by little the thick cloud of collective restlessness dissipates, leaving room to a sequenced movement with wide staggering loops which zigzags under riffs of a synth to suave melodious lines. Lines which float and wave with tenderness on a tempo which increases a pace always morphic that layers of fog soak of a mesmerizing cosmic envelope. Quaver spreads out its 16 minutes with the same poetic and cosmic vision that was the spearhead of Software. The sequences embroider a slightly hatched and finely spasmodic rhythm. A soft, morphic and hypnotic rhythm while the synths throw lead lines of mist and electronic syllables as well as dreamy solos, elements which form the cornerstone of this really good album by TM Solver.
Sylvain Lupari (August 25h, 2012) *****
Available at SynGate Bandcamp
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