Reviews
L3G4CY Album Reviewed by Hypnagogue Reviews
"... It’s energetic, it rocks, it pings those old-school pleasure centers, and it can just be a lot of fun to listen to.
A good tribute to the Maestro*, and well worth a listen..."
* The late Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream
July 13, 205 "...With all the standard elements of the Berlin framework in place—thick. tangy sequencer lines and big, dramatic chords that land like meteor strikes—what really draws my ear here is the ass-kicking guitar work... " To read the complete review please visit |
L3G4CY Album Review by Synth Caresses
“L3g4cy” is the fifth outing of Kuutana’s side project, Sequential Dreams, inspired by the musical visions of Tangerine Dream. This latest effort obviously had to pay tribute to the memory of late Edgar Froese, and a good tribute it is!
July 8, 2015 According to the liner notes of this album, “Mr. Froese is quoted as saying “There is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address”. And it’s with this in mind that the L3G4CY album cover and album track titles portray this new cosmic address. […] Listeners will recognize musical sounds and idioms that are very familiar to the TD or EF listener. ” This album is filled to the rim with guitar-like solos, providing a rocky edge feeling to it all. Let’s have a look at its contents: “L3g4cy”, the eponymous track, opens the album with upfront TD influences, but also that great progressive touch from his Midnight Airship project. This track sounds powerful, menacing and rocky. A great starter full of analogue sounds! “The Sea of Stars”, featuring Johan Tronestam, plunges headlong into a sequencer craze right from the start and contains beautiful melodies, especially the guitar riffs. “Spirit Trance” lives up to its name. it’s trance-like and has got some instantly recognizable TD sounds from the early 80’s -namely, “Exit” and “White Eagle”. On “HyperSpace” the TD ghost stays with us. Altocirrus joins in on this one, for the first time on a Sequential Dreams project. We are now travelling through the 90’s, no doubt. Rocky, harsh solos on keyboards and guitars keep unfolding all along this track. Lovely sounds open “Light Years Away”. The listener is not given a single moment’s rest, for this is another powerful number, showing Kuutana’s strong style. It contains, and I quote, “contemporary ChillStep sounds and beats.” On “Blue Galaxy” Celestial View is featured. It’s a composition that catches your ear from the moment it starts, with great beats and tunes thrown it for good measure. The shadow of TD’s “White Clouds” definitely hovers all throughout this piece, but this is a more modern approach to that classical TD track. My favourite so far. “Escape Velocity” slows down the pace a little bit, but in a deceptive way, as by the third minute, things start to gather and here’s when Kuutana stands on the throttle to thrust the piece ever forward. Quoting the liner notes again: “Escape Velocity” is a “New Berlin School” genre electronic rock track that presents sounds that should be familiar to Tangerine Dream listeners of the “Virgin” and “Blue” years eras.” “Orbital Maneuvers” has another laid-back intro before the action takes control. Here we find the more prog side of Kuutana, namely, his Midnight Airship project, which tries to link the world of Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd in one track. “Light Beyond the Abyss” has reminiscences to TD’s “Mojave Plan” in the sequencer line and effects, featuring the Japanese shakuhachi flute sampled sound. I like it! “The Phoenix” is a revamped version of the track “Fire”, previously released on “The Cosmic Touch” album but without the aid of Daniel Wolf. |
Synth Caresses - Midnight Airship Review
March 2, 2015: Jose at the wonderful EM music blog Synth Caresses published a review of the Midnight Airship's intro album "A River Once Flowed Here". A few highlights: ![]() "... It takes no prisoners, blurring the borders between prog rock, electronic and jazz. Certainly the spirit of Pink Floyd hovers over many parts of this album, but Kuutana manages to imbue a very personal touch to the overall feeling of “A River Once Flowed Here” (...) The jazzy “Money For Your Soul” is a lovely moody piece with some echoes of the Floydian track “Money” –sans vocals, of course. Richly crafted, complex and very satisfying when one indulges in a deep listen to it. " |
Midnight Airship - Intro Album Review by George Miler
<< A refreshing reinterpretation with the sound of a 21st-century production>>
George Miler, December 1, 2014
A couple of months ago I came across an old comment thread in the news feed between two blokes who had collaborated on a track with the intention of sounding like Pink Floyd. Since, like Ravel, I believe that music ought to be emotional first and intellectual second, I let my subconscious mind decide. Then, among the self-doubts and the sparring, I chimed in with “Heck, yeah, this sounds like Pink Floyd.” I’m not in the habit of swooping down unannounced and having an emotional outburst (unless it’s about politics, but I have been exercising restraint recently) so I thought that this first time would be the only time.
I rarely watch The Simpsons either because, for all the clever lines, I hate anything associated with Rupert Murdoch and I think Matt Groening sold out. But one line that stuck with me from one episode was something like: “I’m tired of listening to the old oldies. How about some new oldies?” “Yeah!”
I can’t describe the effect Pink Floyd had on me, especially The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. Floyd provided the background score for my young adult struggle for love and glory and the warmth and goodness of life. There is a vast literature on the subject of human striving, but this is as intellectual and academic as I am going to get today.
What I’m venturing to say is that Midnight Airship sounds like Pink Floyd. (Heck, yeah.) Pink Floyd with an upgrade that creates a fresh style, like a new oldie. Kuutana has emerged as a mighty interesting producer in multifarious milieus, and has entered upon the field of psychedelic prog rock with commendable brio. This album could be the 21st-century version of Pink Floyd. And it has a message! (Along with compelling cover art.)
The Floyd vibe is very strong in the first track, “A River Once Flowed Here,” which possesses the skaldic saga manner of panegyric that prog shares with my favorite New Age ambient. The synth effects and their hopeful mood – including the airflow around the airship as it goes on its mission of mercy – segues seamlessly into the 21st century, complete with vocals, but ends with the trademark Gilmour riffs.
“Money for Your Soul,” track 2, is quintessential Floyd, reminiscent of course of Dark Side’s track “Money,” which makes this track a classic theme in both senses of the word. The long dissonant tone with the soft, subtle guitar, along with the crisp, remorseless phrases bring a judgmental and nearly tragic sense of life to this track. The maniacal synth effects in the spaces between are like the sound of consciences being twisted in the act of selling out. There is more than a hint of Sixties experimental composition in this part, a lot of anguished dislocation which was felt much more acutely in that decade than in the Eighties. The cost in lost souls is the same. In the case of the merry yupsters, this loss was probably only as inconvenient as having an appendix removed. But there are still a lot of sensitive beings out there.
The third track, “Midnight Airdrop" breathes the atmosphere of tech-noir cyberpunk, the reaction to the Eighties, yet affords ample scope to guitar and piano which ably support the theme of the majestic airship making its midnight airdrops and providing succor. The heavy, rapid rhythm adds a note of getting down to serious business, unlike the old ladies from social welfare. Good meets despair head-on and strikes a balance, gives birth to a new synthesis…
…and “Making It Right” (track 4) – which really sounds like Rick and David and Nick are jamming in the studio with Roger. Even Dick Perry seems to come into this slow rocker to support the track’s ambient texture. Serious without being world-weary, it’s more about loyalty, courage, and justice.
Finishing up with track 5, “A Glimmer of Hope” is a departure with its low sonorous chords from which a cautiously triumphant theme rises like a craft on an upwardly arcing trajectory. This piece bears Kuutana’s unmistakable signature. The Floyd vibe is still there, of course, blended faultlessly together, along with a wavering, suspenseful Jeff Waynesque organ base which serves as a foundation for the soaring, optimistic parts.
Just the right mix of new and old, Kuutana has struck the right note with this update, a refreshing reinterpretation with the sound of a 21st-century production. Since centuries don’t really start until their fourteenth years, the 21st may yet be the “century of recovery” kicking off a few future histories.
George Miler, December 1, 2014
Album released December 2014
This album was composed, performed, recorded and produced by Borders Edge Music. BEM produces also Sequential Dreams, Sundown Cafe, Kuutana, The Roboter.
Album cover Image CC BY-SA 3.0 Alex Kwok
Final composed cover artwork by Jean-Luc Charron
Quantum Earth Review - Synth & Sequences
“Solid e-rock, with a zest of IDM,
flavoured of a
futuristic vision,
Quantum Earth has a lot to seduce those who want to
rock on solid cosmic grounds”
Sylvain Lupari (October 17th, 2014) synthsequences.blogspot.ca
1 Quantum Earth 6:32 2 The Universe Builders 7:26 3 Destination Terra 7:10 4 Solar Sails 6:34 5 Celestial Bodies 5:14 6 The Ice Canyons of Miranda 6:00 7 Fireflies in the Starlight 4:48 8 Infinite Improbabilities 11:52 Sequential Dreams Bandcamp (DDL 55:38) ***½ ( Psybient and Psybeat E-rock) Buy |
Quantum Earth Review by George Miler
"I Can't Get Enough of This! Cinematic Grade A!"
George Miler, October 5th 2014
Buy
A Seraphic Decamillenium
Something our species may get to do someday, according to thinkers as diverse as Neil deGrasse Tyson and David Brin, is to build universes. Sometimes I fancy that my favorite movies and shows are tucked away in several reconstructed black holes in our cosmos or in one of the multiverses hinted at by the latest observations of the Planck mission. Kuutana, Celestial View, Johan Tronestam, Chris Pearre (known as Synthesist), and Canada’s “The Roboter” have collaborated on a similar project of cosmic interior decoration, except that it is long lost Earth and its system of planets that their characters, the children of legendary Terra, restore.
In this short story which provides the background, it is 10,000 years later, and 10,000 light-years away.
The title track “Quantum Earth” is a busy number laced with cometary whooshes in an arena of cosmic vistas, followed by a muscular technetronic evocation of the future we do not expect to see. This sounds like the preparation for a journey, although it is not the point of origin that our remote posterity will visit, but the loving reconstruction of it via the technology they avail themselves of on the Universe Builder’s planet. Or perhaps this is a score for the journey to that planet. There’s a sense of promise and adventure whichever the case.
In “The Universe Builders” Celestial View and The Roboter do a great job soundscaping the universe-building process and making it easy to visualize. Imagine a huge workshop in hyperspace with busy crews. Very enjoyable.
“Destination Terra” seems to start at 15 kilo-gees, gliding actually. Lots of good SF effects, and a gladdening, triumphal instrumental swell that must mean arrival. Very good use of large chords, Johan and Kuutana! (But I’m biased.)
“Solar Sails” beggars description. There are parts of this track that are utterly beautiful; truthfully most of it is. Synthesist & Kuutana conjure up the majestic but fragile beauty of the real thing as the sunjammer sails on light and particle-flux. Wait til 2:27 to be enthralled, an experience that is repeated over and over again. I wish it were twice as long.
“Celestial Bodies” must augur a grand tour of the solar system. Exotic worlds, yes, and the music to go with it. Yet I think I hear a truly outworld quality in this track by Celestial View & Kuutana. I’m minded of merchants who deal in the foodstuffs of hitherto undiscovered planets, delicacies of the starborn which 21st-century taste buds have not experienced, the excitement of markets teeming with spices and artistries of a star cluster’s worth of worlds. This raises the question: What viands are available aboard this sunjammer? The visitors to Solar System 2.0 may be discussing the merits and finer points of the menu.
The Uranian moon named – like all of them – from Shakespeare’s plays is the locale for “The Ice Canyons of Miranda.” Cold crystalline canyons whose cliffs tower imperiously into a sky of dense black with stars sprinkled through it, not twinkling but hard and bright. The icy, faerie beauty is well wrought here. Then there is a speed-up past the walls of ice until they blur. This really feels like a tour in a chartered space-speedster, its propulsor-unit oscillations bringing forth faint resonances of Tangerine Dream.
“Fireflies in the Starlight” is as ethereal as the title sounds. Tinkerbell without the Disney frivolity. An auditory delight.
“Infinite Improbabilities” – Real scientists love Hitchhiker’s Guide more than they do Star Wars because it’s pitched to them. They love the humor at any rate. The infinite improbability drive – if I correctly take it to be the inspiration for this track – has a more serious intent here. Echoes of “Drive” (Tomorrow’s World, but I’m guessing) in a few phrases are followed by a rapid percussive beat which could provide a high push to the business end of a space ship: or, in this case, the Quantum Drive of the Universe Builders. Our remote descendants must be getting ready to push onward to the farthest, most outlying probability strata.
A Seraphic Decamillenium
Something our species may get to do someday, according to thinkers as diverse as Neil deGrasse Tyson and David Brin, is to build universes. Sometimes I fancy that my favorite movies and shows are tucked away in several reconstructed black holes in our cosmos or in one of the multiverses hinted at by the latest observations of the Planck mission. Kuutana, Celestial View, Johan Tronestam, Chris Pearre (known as Synthesist), and Canada’s “The Roboter” have collaborated on a similar project of cosmic interior decoration, except that it is long lost Earth and its system of planets that their characters, the children of legendary Terra, restore.
In this short story which provides the background, it is 10,000 years later, and 10,000 light-years away.
The title track “Quantum Earth” is a busy number laced with cometary whooshes in an arena of cosmic vistas, followed by a muscular technetronic evocation of the future we do not expect to see. This sounds like the preparation for a journey, although it is not the point of origin that our remote posterity will visit, but the loving reconstruction of it via the technology they avail themselves of on the Universe Builder’s planet. Or perhaps this is a score for the journey to that planet. There’s a sense of promise and adventure whichever the case.
In “The Universe Builders” Celestial View and The Roboter do a great job soundscaping the universe-building process and making it easy to visualize. Imagine a huge workshop in hyperspace with busy crews. Very enjoyable.
“Destination Terra” seems to start at 15 kilo-gees, gliding actually. Lots of good SF effects, and a gladdening, triumphal instrumental swell that must mean arrival. Very good use of large chords, Johan and Kuutana! (But I’m biased.)
“Solar Sails” beggars description. There are parts of this track that are utterly beautiful; truthfully most of it is. Synthesist & Kuutana conjure up the majestic but fragile beauty of the real thing as the sunjammer sails on light and particle-flux. Wait til 2:27 to be enthralled, an experience that is repeated over and over again. I wish it were twice as long.
“Celestial Bodies” must augur a grand tour of the solar system. Exotic worlds, yes, and the music to go with it. Yet I think I hear a truly outworld quality in this track by Celestial View & Kuutana. I’m minded of merchants who deal in the foodstuffs of hitherto undiscovered planets, delicacies of the starborn which 21st-century taste buds have not experienced, the excitement of markets teeming with spices and artistries of a star cluster’s worth of worlds. This raises the question: What viands are available aboard this sunjammer? The visitors to Solar System 2.0 may be discussing the merits and finer points of the menu.
The Uranian moon named – like all of them – from Shakespeare’s plays is the locale for “The Ice Canyons of Miranda.” Cold crystalline canyons whose cliffs tower imperiously into a sky of dense black with stars sprinkled through it, not twinkling but hard and bright. The icy, faerie beauty is well wrought here. Then there is a speed-up past the walls of ice until they blur. This really feels like a tour in a chartered space-speedster, its propulsor-unit oscillations bringing forth faint resonances of Tangerine Dream.
“Fireflies in the Starlight” is as ethereal as the title sounds. Tinkerbell without the Disney frivolity. An auditory delight.
“Infinite Improbabilities” – Real scientists love Hitchhiker’s Guide more than they do Star Wars because it’s pitched to them. They love the humor at any rate. The infinite improbability drive – if I correctly take it to be the inspiration for this track – has a more serious intent here. Echoes of “Drive” (Tomorrow’s World, but I’m guessing) in a few phrases are followed by a rapid percussive beat which could provide a high push to the business end of a space ship: or, in this case, the Quantum Drive of the Universe Builders. Our remote descendants must be getting ready to push onward to the farthest, most outlying probability strata.
I can’t get enough of this. Cinematic Grade A.
George Miler, October 5th 2014Sunset Reverie Review by George Miler
"Two very human souls are investing every musical phrase with a rich and mellow power"
George Miler on Sundown Cafe's Sunset Reverie Album August 24, 2014
The Bandcamp page* promised the sort of ambio-audionic experience I love to bliss out to. The write-up for track 2, “Suburban Sunset,” even reminds me of when New Age and easy-listening jazz became popular, when society got all suity and agonic.
But from the first track “Midnight Sun”, Sundown Café’s Sunset Reverie has the undertones of heartfelt yet sophisticated passion.
On the question of genres – lines are somewhat arbitrary. The number of colors in the visible spectrum is infinity. A fact Kuutana and Celestial View seem to know on some level as they blend these influences consistently. The effect is seamless. Even the sax does not sound imported and plunked down, but is an essential, integral component that lends an incredible maturity to music that already possesses the resonance of lived experience. No empty tropes for their own sake like you might find in a bad graphic novel. This is replete with content from the very bedrock. Yet the whole effect of these enveloping layers of emotion, leavened by an earned expertise, is relaxed, and invites you to breathe deeply.
My few encounters with Kuutana left me with the impression of a zesty, enthusiastic musician. And Celestial View’s shy smile must be hiding something. Or perhaps it’s forbearance. The style I recognize as Kuutana’s is here, as in the beginning of “Nightfall,” but it quickly moves up to the next level.
Speaking as an American, it evokes a time when this isolationist country grew up and took a good look at the world and became wise…without, in this case, becoming cynical.
No cyberpunk shortcuts to dystopia or urban angst here. Nothing raw or harsh, depressing or bleak. (A hint of melancholy, perhaps, like the red rays of sun in an autumnal city, every object smoothed and aged.) Two very human souls are investing every musical phrase with a rich and mellow power...
No cyberpunk shortcuts to dystopia or urban angst here. Nothing raw or harsh, depressing or bleak. (A hint of melancholy, perhaps, like the red rays of sun in an autumnal city, every object smoothed and aged.) Two very human souls are investing every musical phrase with a rich and mellow power...
George Miler, August 24, 2014
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