“Strongly influenced by the beginnings of the French School, Delta Evolution is also scented by the Teutonic vision of 2 boys from Berlin...”
1 Automata 5:41
2 Inside Vector Field 8:13
3 Macroscopic Change 9:12
4 Singular Homology 7:41
5 Major Seventh 4:53
6 Nabla 5:50
7 Simplicial Complex 5:36
8 Macroscopic Change (Reprise) 5:19
9 Uncertainty 5:21
10 Sunset at Delta Town 4:23
(CD-R/DDL 62:07) (V.F.)
(E-Rock, Electronica & Romance)
For the purposes of this review, the titles 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 were composed by Bernd Moonbooter Scholl, while the titles 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 were composed by Erez Yaary. And it was the very first time that my ears met his music.
To be honest, I wasn't really sure I liked this album after the first listen. Too disparate with styles that confront each other in a universe where electronic rock and dance music such as seen by Moonbooter transcended over his companion for the time of an album. There is also this opening of Automata which destroyed my ear canals leaving no room for silence. I push play that the sequences, and the rubber shadows, dance and flutter dryly from one ear to the other. The flow between rock and this dance-music mode is tangible with this fluttering static rhythm line that bites the tips of my ears. There is also this distant feeling of motor racing in this opening that a keyboard brings to a more synth-pop dimension by making nervously dance its arpeggios. Sound effects? There are plenty of them. They are chewed by synths that weave a jerky texture while others vaguely imitate the sound of a highway or the surroundings of a racetrack with wonders and encouragement in the vocal effects. Am I in a new Autobahn? A mix between this Autobahn and Kraftwerk's Tour de France? Possible that the group from Düsseldorf has an ascendancy on this album, especially after having heard the second part of the too seductive Macroscopic Change and a part of Singular Homology. But what I have not yet written is that throughout this first listening, there were magic moments which tore me away from the book I was reading. A book, Un(e)Secte by Maxime Chattam, that I finally put away to better listen to Macroscopic Change (Reprise) and the rest of this DELTA EVOLUTION.
The very catchy rhythm of Automata melts into a cosmic ocean where the waves roll until foaming in the opening of Inside Vector Field. The keyboard, backed-up by a bass line and a movement of the sequencer, goes into tension mode. This cinematic opening, ideal for a thrilling film, ends its long musical axis to structure itself in an Electronica mode with pulsations as panicked as silent clamor. The sequences flutter and their large dragonfly wings vibrate in a texture of heaviness and slowness for this track which would be uneventful, without these arrangements which give it a texture as romantic as cosmic. Too heavy to fly and explode, Inside Vector Field gives way to this tearful violin that reminds me so much of Thierry Fervant's musical sadness. The harp crumbles its fragile notes in a dense orchestral texture that a delicate flute revives for a second round. These ambiences are awakening with a structure pulsating with uneven jerks at around 4 minutes. The tone of the keyboard is that of a small glass of pure crystal whose interior is dented. Little by little, these elements come together to give a magnificent electronic rumba whose sound is so vintage, like Neu! for the rhythm, Jean Michel Jarre for the rumba and Fervant for the harmonies lost in a bottomless cliff. This transition between each track fascinates in this album. Erez Yaary and Bernd Scholl take turns in the musical presentation. And we feel that Moonbooter wants at all costs to go up the stream of his friend. This is how Singular Homology was born from the orchestrations of Inside Vector Field to develop in this shy rock and an Electronica which is frightened by the heaviness and the thunderous strikes of the percussions. And possibly by this synth which spits out a splendid melody which informs us hours later that we have listened to DELTA EVOLUTION today. It's good and above all a highly creative Moonbooter who does his job very well of accompanying the few 31 minutes of the mini-album Delta by Erez Yaary. Major Seventh? That looks like a suite to Macroscopic Change with its opening heavy of sadness before a sequencer makes pulsate tens of keys in a circle progressing on a linear path. The arrangements are quite good here with an astral vision which unravels our astonishment. The violins force tears on what becomes a heavy bludgeoning by the sequencers.
Nabia is a Grand Cru Moonbooter. Its flow is curt and circular, as well as dabbing with strength by this mesh of sequences and percussions. A nice frivolous melody hangs its arpeggios here and there, around this membrane tight in jerks which clings so well to percussions. It's big electronic rock with a light, but light, taste for Techno for cryogenic zombies. And this rhythm as heavy as slow and coated with a good stroboscopic texture flows into Simplicial Complex where Erez Yaary surprises in his Moonbooter jacket. A Moonbooter who reworks the harmonic part of Macroscopic Change (Reprise) in one of its slow and romantic dance structure. Uncertainty takes us out of enchantment with a title sculpted in Moonbooter's dancing visions. Although written by Erez Yaary, the title has this cachet of Disco tempo where a mass of shadows dance to the gestures of a sympathetic DJ and of his spectral sculpture played on Theremin. There are scents of Jean-Michel Jarre, especially at the percussions level, on this track which ends its dance jolts in the cosmic spaces of Sunset at Delta Town. The orchestrations are soft and drag the layers of violins between stars and cosmic chirps in a sober finish for an album as so high in colours.
Finally, it's a bet wonderfully met by Moonbooter that the conception of this DELTA EVOLUTION. Too short for a real album on MellowJet Records, the German musician ends the vision of his Israeli colleague by adding about thirty minutes of music which are introduced without being noticed between each of the compositions which used to form Erez Yaary's Delta album. Strongly influenced by the beginnings of the French School, DELTA EVOLUTION is an album that should convince you quite easily to repeat this first gesture that you made to listen to it. Either press play again ...
Sylvain Lupari (10/06/20) *****
Available at Mellow-Jet Records
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