Reviews
Rock n Prog Québec Interview
 On June 6 2021, Daniel Couturier of Rock n Prog Québec interviewed Ron Charron, founder Borders Edge Music. ENTREVUE The Border's Edge Music Discussion avec Ron Charron En faisant des recherches sur un de nos membres, j'ai été vraiment impressionner de découvrir toute l'ampleur de ses réalisations. Alors, je lui ai demander de nous en parler et nous les faires découvrir. Question 1: Parles-nous de tes différents projets et Question 2: Parles-nous de tes influences, de ton parcours musicales Tout comme bien des amateurs de Prog qui ont vécu une ascension d'écoute au cours des années 70 au Québec, j’ai fait mon plein de Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant, King Crimson et d’autres. Toutefois mon appétit musical a également été ouvert à des titres un peu plus de niche tels les Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultze, Kraftwerk (du Krautrock), mais aussi Mahavishnu Orchestra, Van der Graaf Generator, Jeff Beck. Dans un genre différent on y rajoute du Vangelis, Kitaro, Synergy, et Brian Eno. Mais il m’est important aussi de mentionner qu’au Québec les groupes tels que Pollen, Harmonium, Octobre, Offenbach, et Maneige ont aussi été d’influence. Malgré les 25 années précédentes à composer et jouer guitares et claviers, ce n’est qu’en 2010 que les outils de production et de publication me sont devenus plus accessibles. Je me suis fait contrat de respecter mon inspiration et de ne pas contraindre mes efforts à un type plus que de l’autre. Ce n'est qu’après que quelques pièces ne soient raffinées à un niveau acceptable pour la publication, que j’ai dû revêtir mon chapeau d’éditeur et constater qu’il fallait regrouper mes pièces de sorte qu’ils puissent mieux cibler des audiences types. Il m’est venu à l’idée que les genres de musique que je produisais étaient suffisamment différents et qu’il y aurait lieu de choisir des noms de projets différents. Aussi, il fait bon de mentionner que dans mes premières années de production, celles-ci furent des efforts en solo. Donc, j'ai publié mes premiers albums sous les noms de projet ‘Sequential Dreams’ (avec un clin d’œil à Tangerine Dream) Kuutana (Ambient) TheRoboter (à la Kraftwerk). À noter ici qu’autre que Sequential Dreams qui peut être par certains caractérisé de rock de l’école berlinoise (“Berlin School of Electronic Rock”) ces titres sont principalement composés de musique électronique (même si la guitare et la batterie y apparait régulièrement). Ce n’est pas que mon amour du rock progressif ait disparu avec l’âge, mais plutôt du fait que les instruments de production musicale utilisés se portaient plus facilement à une meilleure qualité de production dans ce genre. Oui, je composais et enregistrais des pièces de rock et de prog, mais je n’étais aucunement satisfait des résultats dans cette période (2010 à 2013). Avec 9 albums publiés durant cette période, et des milliers d’heures à la console pour les produire, j’ai gagné un peu plus de confiance en ma dextérité pour ce qui est de l’enregistrement et le mixage et je me suis mis à enregistrer mon premier titre plus décidément prog rock sous le nom de projet ‘Midnight Airship’ à inspiration Pink Floyd (mais instrumental). J’ai pu bénéficier de critiques assez positifs pour l’album ‘A River Once Flowed Here’ et c’est ainsi que je me suis senti plus confortable à continuer de produire du Prog (sans toutefois abandonner mes autres projets). Depuis, le nombre de titres a grandi à 71 albums (dont 35 des titres de compilations destinés à mon émission ‘Music from the Borders Edge’ sur la webradio Modul303.com. J’ai invité des musiciens de huit autres pays qui ont participé çà et là, principalement à mes albums Sequential Dreams. J’ai aussi rajouté quelques projets en route (Sundown Café, Stone Nebula, the Color of Sleep, Melotronik). Toutefois, je dirais que le côté Rock s’est surtout axé sur les projets Midnight Airship, Starship Trooper, Sequential Dreams, et Stone Nebula. Pour Sequential Dreams, il y a toujours cette influence Tangerine Dream, mais beaucoup de pièces qui sont bien aimées par mes adeptes qui s’alimentent de Prog! Pour qui écoutera mes albums, il est assez clair que je suis multi-instrumentaliste, mais dans l’ordre chronologique j’ai apprivoisé la guitare, les claviers (orgues et synthés), les flutes, et les percussions. Tout le reste vient d’une panoplie diverse d’instruments cueillies au cours de voyages et complémentés par des synthés. Question 3: J'aimerais que tu nous parles un peu du label The Borders Edge Music et plus particulièrement, ce qui t'as motivé à créer ce label ? Après la publication de quelques titres de projets différents, Il m’est venu clair qu’il fallait établir une meilleure fondation pour soutenir le côté commercial. Il n’y avait guère d’illusions d’en faire fortune, mais plutôt les petits côtés pratiques nécessaires au partage de ma musique à une auditoire géographiquement diversifiée. D’ailleurs, c’était presque essentiel une fois inséré les engagements avec les distributeurs. Ma diversité de genres a assez rapidement exclu de faire appel à d’autre labels, et de toute façon je n’y voyais pas l’avantage. Ce n’était guère mon intention de partir en tournée 40 semaines par année. Je suis principalement un compositeur et musicien de studio. L’autopublication est devenue raisonnablement facile, mais pas sans efforts. C’est donc dire qu’une importante partie de mes efforts ont graduellement été accaparés vers le label, surtout à force d’avoir souscris une douzaine d’artistes tirés des quatre coins du monde. Outre le mixage, la production des titres et albums, il y avait la coordination des artistes graphiques pour les couvertures d’album, le côté marketing et présentiel avec un réseau d’animateurs de radio en Amérique et en Europe, et le travail avec les distributeurs de chaque côté de l’Atlantique. Une note à considérer toutefois est que chaque titre et chaque production contient ma musique et c’est là un facteur limitatif qui circonscrit toute question par rapport aux projets d’expansion. Donc, Borders Edge Music est principalement l’instrument qui me permet de publier ma musique. Qui sait, peut-être un jour ce sera plus, mais pas pour l’instant! Question 4: Sur l'album High-Voltage paru en 2017) de Sequential Dreams, on remarque la collaboration spéciale de Bernhard Beibl (ex-guitariste et violoniste de Tangerine Dreams), c'est pas rien. Comment as-tu trouvé l'expérience ? High-Voltage est un album compilation qui combine toutes les pièces de Sequential Dreams auxquels Bernhard Beibl (Berni) ait participé en tant que guitariste et violoniste. Ces pièces sont tirées des albums “Legends” et “The Exodus Wave”. Or, lorsque Berni a quitté Tangerine Dream en 2014 je me suis dit qu’il serait bien intéressant de l’approcher pour participer dans mon projet d’album intitulé “Legends” auquel figurait aussi la compositrice Japonaise Ryo Utasato (venant de quitter Sony Japan en tant que compositrice de trames de films) et de la pianiste américaine Kori L Carothers (avec sa collaboration avec Noah Wilding, Jeff Haynes, Tom Eaton, et Will Ackerman, ce dernier propriétaire de Imaginary Road studios, bien connu pour les titres Nouvel Age). En effet, quoique j’avais déjà enregistré des pistes de guitare pour les pièces de l’album, je me suis dit que Berni apporterait quelques-unes au “Next level”. J’ai été bien ravi qu’il ait accepté! L’expérience a résulté en des pièces des plus intéressantes! Nous avons travaillé à distance, s’échangeant des centaines de fichiers et discutant des résultats de mix intérimaires. Berni était ravi du dynamisme de mes pièces car au cours de ses dernières années avec Tangerine Dream (TD), sa passion pour le Rock débordait du câdre de TD. C’est là que j’ai dû “faire une place” à Berni pour ses excellentes contributions de guitare. Il y a des passages ou il n’y a pas moins de 10 trames de guitares simultanés (aux crescendos!). C’était du grand travail d’assembler tant d’éléments de musique tout en gardant une bonne synergie. De rajout, Berni a un très grand sens du détail et nous avons passés de longues heures à travailler les pièces. Question 5: En 2015, tu as publié un album relativement différent de ce que tu avais sorti jusque là, plus symphonique, plus rock, dans quel contexte as-tu eu l'idée du projet Starship Trooper - Like a Fish Out of Water ? Au fait, suite à la mort du bassiste de Yes, Chris Squire, je me suis senti chargé d’une mission d’honorer mes penchants pour certains titres de Yes et j’ai produit l’album ‘The Great Pond in the Sky’ sous le nom de projet ‘Starship Trooper’. Je me suis mis à réécouter du Yes avec une intensité telle, que çà sortait quasiment des pores de peau! Et puis ça s’est mis à déverser en composition comme un torrent d’eau au printemps suite à une fonte de neige précipitée. J’en demeure un peu étonné des résultats jusqu’aujourd’hui! Question 6: Pour Midnight Airship et tout particulièrement sur l'album Learning to Fly (2020), on sens bien les références à Pink Floyd. Peux-tu nous parler du concept derrière cet album ? L’album “Learning to Fly” est celui qui m’ait pris le plus d’heures (et d’années même!) à composer. En fait, des premières pièces initialement composées en 2015, j’ai complété l’album en 2020. Quoique le titre fait allusion d’une pièce de ce nom de Pink Floyd, pour moi le titre était l’écrit d’une réflexion interne sur ma progression musicale. Je sentais alors que j’avais “appris à voler” (learned to fly) et était prêt à rassembler tout ce que j’avais appris de la production musicale pour consacrer à l’album. Thématiquement, les paroles de quelques pièces (“Crazy Days”, “Dark Star Rising”) traitent d’un certain leader américain qui n’as pas manqué de casser les pieds à la planète durant cette période, sur un fond de tragédie humaine qui était ignorée pour faire place à du “je-me-centrisme" d’une envergure rarement vue dans l’histoire (voir “Lost in a Dream” décrivant le sort des vagues réfugiés transigeant de l’Afrique vers l’Europe, co-composée avec Arend Westra des Pays Bas). J’ai toujours chéri la musique de Pink Floyd, et pour cet album je dirais que leurs albums “Dark Side of the Moon”, “Wish You Were Here”, et “Animals” (avec un peu de “The Wall”) ont été source d’inspiration musicale. Ajoutons qu’il est à peu près impossible de faire une musique semblable à celle qui alimente la nostalgie qu’inspire les albums de Pink Floyd de cette époque. La nostalgie fait qu’on mémorise note pour note et toute déflexion est impardonnable! De la musique inoubliable, produite par la suite en studio pars des maitres de l’enregistrement tel Alan Parsons. Donc de faire çà seul dans son studio, c’était un défi de taille et çà explique les milliers d’heures que j’y ai mis. Mais c’était principalement pour moi-même que je faisais çà. Je m’étais mis le défi et j’avais bien l’intention de capturer ce que cette musique m’avait contribué (à l’âme, et musicalement) et de la traduire en musique via le prisme que fût mon être durant cette période. D’ailleurs c’est le seul album qu’on peut m’entendre chanter (pour le mieux ou le pire!) Question 7: Sur quel projet travailles-tu actuellement C’est une bien bonne question car la période entre novembre 2020 et mai 2021 ont vu la parution d’un album Midnight Airship “Learning to Fly”, un Sequential Dreams “Chrysalis”, d’un Kuutana “L’esprit des eaux” et de deux compilations Borders Edge “Water Spirits” et “Through the Looking Glass”. J’en suis donc dans une période “Entre deux eaux” pour ainsi dire. C’est une période où je passerai un peu plus de temps à réfléchir sur mes prochains horizons. Mais s'il y a quelque chose que j’ai appris au travers des années, c’est que le meilleur matériel vient quand on ne la force pas. Donc, apprenant du passé, je me laisserai emporter par ce dont quoi j’ai besoin pour nourrir mon âme. Car, avant tout, la musique que je compose est celle qui s'annonce par l’inspiration du moment! Celle que j’ai besoin pour donner ce sens qu’à la musique de nourrir le cœur et l’âme. C’est donc à suivre! En clôture, merci à Daniel Couturier et les champions derrière Rock n Prog Québec pour l’initiative et l’effort pour faire connaitre les musiciens du Québec! |
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. |
L3G4CY Album Review by Synth&Sequences
"I quite liked this balance between the heavy but nervous e-rock and those more ethereal atmospheres. Between these old tones and those more contemporary in the last miles of Edgar. It's the beautiful recipe, a little daring, for another attractive work of the global collective that is Sequential Dreams."
A Review of Sequential Dream's Fifth Album "L3G4CY"
By Sylvain Lupari, Synth&Sequences, April 1, 2015
 " ...Quite appealing album from Sequential Dreams entitled simply but esthetically “L3G4CY”. And that begins with the title-track which, imho, is the best of this collection of 10 tracks. Arabian murmurs and contemporary chords open an intro which throws us for a brief moment in the tentacles of the Jerome Froese years, especially with this line of stroboscopic sequences which bites our eardrums and used to shape these structures of nervous rhythm which fed the TDI era. Except that here the rhythm rests in suspension. Between two possibilities where the ambiences which settle down bring us back in the Green Desert times. The synth is soft with spectral harmonies which make shining the Flashpoint years. And it's one of the beautiful attractions of “L3G4CY”. This mixture of the periods of the Dream and this balance between the rhythms and their shadows, be the ambiences, very often coated by tones of the Phaedra years up to the White Eagle's one, arouses an attention which makes us discover beautiful musical pieces. The guitar is very present on this album, but surprisingly its perfumes remind more those of Steve Hackett on a Gandalf album (Gallery of Dreams) and even those of Mike Oldfield but rarely Edgar Froese's fragrances. On "Legacy", the six-strings drags its ghostly harmonies, mixing and losing even its sighs in those of the synths, on a structure of rhythm a bit ambiguous. I quite like it and it starts things pretty well. Then comes "The Sea of Stars", written in collaboration of Johan Tronestam; one of the good emergent artists in the sphere of an EM fed by lively rhythms. And it's exactly what happens with "The Sea of Stars". I hooked on it straight on. It's very lively! I like this soft rhythm where the drum, the sequences and the bass pulsations pilfer for a rhythm saturated by so much heaviness. A steady rhythm where the guitar is fighting with a piano in order to throw a melody which floats between two structures; one ethereal and the other one sharply more lively. A kind of fight that we will be witnessing all over this last album from Sequential Dreams. On a hyper nervous structure of rhythm, "Spirit Trance" hides a beautiful electronic melody, thus quite fragmented, which reminds me of White Eagle . It's alive, lively and full of effects which seek the atmospheres of Exit. This is a very beautiful collaboration with Synthesist! "HyperSpace" is bickering between good moments of atmospheres and its very rock electronic approach which brings us back in the Edgar's years on TDI. (Editor's note: features Altocirrus) "Light Years Away" is another good moment. The rhythm is lively and heavy. It pulses in a meshing of resonances and in the beatings of good percussions whereas the melody remains ambient, divided it is in three approaches. It's a good track, just as "Blue Galaxy" written with Celestial View. Always leaned on this bed of sequences and softly nervous pulsations, the rather eclectic duet proposes us a very beautiful ethereal melody which hesitates between the moods of White Eagle and of Seven Letters from Tibet. " Escape Velocity" is a track difficult to seize due to its constantly changing structures, like a grass-snake in permanent mutation of the skin. The intro will remind to certain of you these glass arpeggios that Yanni has used to spread in his Keys to Imagination. An intro in suspension where tears of synth float on pulsations which refuse to hatch. A huge bass line redirects then "Escape Velocity" towards a lively e-rock with a drum which is just too short of breath. This swirling rhythm inhales tones of the Dream while escaping good guitar solos. There is a good blend of Pink Floyd with the TDI years in this complex track which will please with more listenings. A heavier, a more incisive drum would have made of this track something huge. The influences of Pink Floyd are also very present in "Orbital Maneuvers", normal with Midnight Airship on board, which, after a very Syd Barrett and company characteristic intro, as well as Alan Parsons by the way, dives into the good e-rock. "Light Beyond the Abyss" is an interesting track. Its flute enchants the senses while a sequencing pattern is flickering such as the wings of a motionless bird in the sky. There is a latent swiftness in this track painted by effects of the Dream and of its metallic years around this track which, at times, dives in good and more intense moments. The flute is very exhilarating. "The Phoenix" concludes this collection of sonic odes to the memory of Edgar Froese with a heavy rhythm where the perfumes of saxophone awake this period where several of us have abandoned the Tangerine Dream ship and its commander Edgar. Whether we like or not each of the periods and Edgar Froese's changes of address, “L3G4CY” is a beautiful sonic and musical document which could actually reconcile you with these times when ingredients were inevitably missing. Kuutana really succeeds to seduce in approaches which had nevertheless left me of ice in these years. The explanation is doubtless in the emotion. While everything sounded cold in the new directions of Edgar, here the heat and the degree of intensity, emotionalism, as well as this skillful mixture between the genres and the periods seduce ears which have difficulty in absorbing so many sounds and changes of direction inside the 7 minutes average which last the 10 tracks proposed on“L3G4CY”. Is it too much? That depends on ears! As for me, I quite liked this balance between the heavy but nervous e-rock and those more ethereal atmospheres. Between these old tones and those more contemporary in the last miles of Edgar. It's the beautiful recipe, a little daring, for another attractive work of the global collective that is Sequential Dreams. " Sylvain Lupari (April 1st,2015) gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca | L3G4CY News
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L3G4CY Album Review by George Miler
"Jaw-droppingly good"
A Review of Sequential Dream's Fifth Album "L3G4CY"
By George Miler, March 24, 2015
 There aren’t many things I enjoy better than immersing myself in a luxurious soundscape. For the record, there are things I like more. A week ago on the first spring-like day I got my car inspected. One of the other customers wanted to chat and said how good it was to be able to drive with the windows down. The chorus of agreements came, including my “the best feeling in the world.” But I misspoke. Compared to winter’s lingering drear, it certainly felt like it at that moment. Even so, I was eagerly looking forward to listening to Sequential Dream’s latest album L3G4CY. To listen to Kuutana you have to raise your musical appreciation a couple of notches or more. This didn’t require much effort on my part because my brain poked me in the ribs and made me sit up. At the same time those untraceable connections between the neocortex, the rear cortex, and the pineal gland lit up like neon. What I was conscious of was Kuutana’s assiduous deliberation in mixing these tracks. He has exercised the same care in choosing his collaborators. This producer is also an imaginative SF writer, and I entertained the notion that the fine structure of these compositions reflected a narrative. My first listen is always done without any acquaintance with blurbs or promotional lit. Also there was no narrative provided here, but I had sensed a storyline in Midnight Airship: A River Once Flowed Here that made me think it was one of those soundtracks without a movie that invites the listener to fit a plot to it. What did happen was that curiosity overcame me, so I watched for the info to pop up for each track. Sure enough, there was Celestial View on “Blue Galaxy”, Synthesist (the American Chris Pearre) on “Spirit Trance”, while Kuutana is listed in “Light Beyond the Abyss”. All of these fine worthies have collaborated before. Altocirrus (Sean and Clare McCarthy) appears for the first time, on “HyperSpace.” Midnight Airship is listed on “Orbital Maneuvers” and I admit I experienced a moment’s confusion. As I said, I’m familiar with the album. And while “Legacy” had already stimulated my synapses so much that I was able to resolve a significant perplexity that I had been ruminating about all day, not this time. So during a Facebook chat I asked Sean McCarthy to relieve my mental anguish. Before he replied I remembered how Michael Cretu’s Enigma was considered to be a project. So obviously is Midnight Airship. (Which means I can expect more!) When Sean got back to me he told me that these tracks have a theme. It wasn’t long before I went to the L3G4CY page on Borders Edge Music and read that the album is a memorial tribute to Edgar Froese, the titan of EM who had overleaped all the intervening categories to create a genre of his own. This sure explains the panorama of images crowding my mind! (This is the particular legacy Froese alone and via Tangerine Dream has bequeathed to me, and it will endure to the end of my life.) I think I perceive a philosophy or métaphysique in the output of Altocirrus and it numerous manifestations stemming from Sean and Clare’s collaborations with Ross Aka Man (Ross Ackerman) and the Electron Sun Project (feat. Ali Carter / Pure Mischief), Ross Ackerman, and Dean Burnett of Weathered Wall, namely a grim defiance of fate and doom. Being no “knight of ghosts and shadows” myself I’m going to slip behind the arras of stage names, groups and projects to affirm that Ron Charron retained Altocirrus’s track in its entirety and built upon it. The long form is Altocirrus’s métier, after all. I need to get back “on track” myself to describe how jaw-droppingly good “Escape Velocity” is. About here the theme shifts to incorporate strains of Pink Floyd, who were equally at home in the vast spaces, undwarfed. I did indulge in full immersion for this one. And if you can imagine a frisky romp Berlin style, you owe it to Johan Tronestam, “The Sea of Stars." "Light Years Away”, has phrases I love and a beat seemingly straight out of De Laurentiis’s underrated Flash Gordon. Fact of the matter is – and here comes the trademark Froese style as I write this – the theme throughout is Froese’s new address, which is the entire spatio-temporal cosmos. Now the progression is evident. The culmination, “The Phoenix” is pure Sequential Dreams. One could almost say that these releases – not to mention the output of all the artists – are a living tribute to Edgar. A legacy, indeed. As for this track’s title…those whose opinions I respect immensely insist that a TD revival is flatly impossible. I honestly don’t know. And it may be redundant. Edgar’s genius is the sort of hadronic collision that creates a prismatic burst of particles that fans out to infinity forever. |
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. " |
A Touch of Berlin Vol. 1 - Synth&Sequences Review
<< A structure of rhythm which will explode in a e-rock a la Tangerine Dream >>
 Sylvain Lupari (January 14th, 2015) For full review, please visit: |      |
Midnight Airship - Intro Album Review by George Miler
<< A refreshing reinterpretation with the sound of a 21st-century production>>
George Miler, December 1, 2014
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.
…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.
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 |
Sound waves take the shape of air-raid
sirens. The roarings are quieting down in a kind of din from where
raises a heavy jerky structure of rhythm. With a plethora of bass
sequences and pulsations, electronic and guitar riffs, as well as a lot
of percussions with skins of Bongo drums which are thundering a lively
rhythm of which the futuristic tribal approaches have quite the
appearances of a solid cosmic e-rock a la Jarre, the title-track of
“Quantum Earth” sets the tone to another solid album of electronic rock
with a futuristic dimension from this collective project (Celestial
View, The Roboter, Johan Tronestam, Kuutana and Synthesist) that is
Sequential Dreams.
Without surprises, the international quintet offers an album where the rhythms are sometimes raging in moods from time to time sieved by moderations and where the harmonies always hang on to the hairs of our ears. Hard-hitting, with short passages a bit more moderated, "Quantum Earth" forces our eardrums with a heavy and lively electronic approach which is lying on a meshing of sequences and percussions to which are added beautiful ethereal synth pads, filled of sweet artificial voices, which counterbalance the ferocity of the rhythm. For the fans of Sequential Dreams, we are on familiar ground. And I would add that this “Quantum Earth” is a little wilder with a technoïd approach which is very near to a loud IDM. The rhythms cross the tribal aromas, in particular because of the bongo drums, in envelopes which mix the mid and the down tempos. But it's heavy. This is strong e-rock very influenced by the periods of electronic rhythms from Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream. When to those who like an EM tortured by keen percussions and stormy sequences far from the wanderings sequenced of Berlin School, excepted for the very beautiful "Infinite Improbabilities", and closer to a type of psybeat, Sequential Dreams should appears in your notebook of discoveries to come.
"The
Universe Builders" also begins with a long whoosh and a lot of short
whaash. The intro is fascinating with a double speed sonic dialect which
will call back the attempts of communication in Close Encounter. Soon,
the rhythm begins to sparkle and gesticulate with deep sequences before
falling in a kind of heavy hip-hop with a pace, clubbed by robust
percussions and bangings of hands, which skips in a puddle of
pulsations, gurgling and electronic winds. Break-dance or hip-hop; "The
Universe Builders" skips and pounds with sequences which flicker
mockingly and orchestral synth pads which make counterweight to this
tempo pounding in a thousand of sound flavors.
Less
heavy and closer to synth-pop, "Destination Terra" crackles on a
structure of electronic percussions and sequences with an unbridled
flow, while the harmonious envelope crosses as much a cosmic, at both
ambient and ethereal, as a synth-pop.
Just like "Celestial Bodies" moreover, but which leans more towards a strong IDM. "Solar Sails" is the relaxation moment on “Quantum Earth”. Its intro is seraphic and the rhythm which holds its hand is silky slow and soaked of a dense sound fauna which brings a bit of distortion.
"The
Ice Canyons of Miranda" offers a structure of sequences where a line of
jumping keys gallops in the harmonies of another more fragile line. The
synths bathe the atmospheres of a heavenly approach which is very near
the fragrances of Tangerine Dream. In fact, the rhythm moves with good
percussions and with beautiful harmonies which make relive the vibe of
the Canyon Dreams. It's beautiful synth-pop, as much delicate and
cheerful as "Destination Terra".
"Fireflies
in the Starlight" brings the clock to rhythm with a heavy mid-tempo
which oscillates on good sequences, as lively as those bongo drum
percussions, which thunder to the ton and with solid riffs of an
e-guitar which remind the Miramar ambiences, always from TD. And like on
every track of “Quantum Earth”, the music dives into a more dreamy, a
more ethereal passage, before taking back its shape with subtle
modifications in its structure.
The
introduction of "Infinite Improbabilities" makes us revisit the dreamy
moods of Flashpoint with a line of bass sequences of which the
oscillations crawl under the charms of a synth to the singings flavored
by the flutes of desert. A carpet of prisms covers this sneaky rhythm
whereas the singings take on a dress of spectres. The ambiences are on
the edge of the works from the psychotronic era with organic pulsations
and threatening synth pads which depict the evolutionary rhythms of the
Dream, periods Wavelength and Near Dark. Moreover it's about this album
that I'm thinking when the percussions approach the moods with strong
disordered strikes, turning upside down a passive rhythm which
gesticulates like a poisoned skeleton before becoming as steady as the
good passages of Near Dark. By far, the most fascinating track on
“Quantum Earth” which at the end is a solid album of electronic rock to
the trends always so futuristic.
.
Sylvain Lupari (October 17th, 2014)
gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca
Without surprises, the international quintet offers an album where the rhythms are sometimes raging in moods from time to time sieved by moderations and where the harmonies always hang on to the hairs of our ears. Hard-hitting, with short passages a bit more moderated, "Quantum Earth" forces our eardrums with a heavy and lively electronic approach which is lying on a meshing of sequences and percussions to which are added beautiful ethereal synth pads, filled of sweet artificial voices, which counterbalance the ferocity of the rhythm. For the fans of Sequential Dreams, we are on familiar ground. And I would add that this “Quantum Earth” is a little wilder with a technoïd approach which is very near to a loud IDM. The rhythms cross the tribal aromas, in particular because of the bongo drums, in envelopes which mix the mid and the down tempos. But it's heavy. This is strong e-rock very influenced by the periods of electronic rhythms from Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream. When to those who like an EM tortured by keen percussions and stormy sequences far from the wanderings sequenced of Berlin School, excepted for the very beautiful "Infinite Improbabilities", and closer to a type of psybeat, Sequential Dreams should appears in your notebook of discoveries to come.
Just like "Celestial Bodies" moreover, but which leans more towards a strong IDM. "Solar Sails" is the relaxation moment on “Quantum Earth”. Its intro is seraphic and the rhythm which holds its hand is silky slow and soaked of a dense sound fauna which brings a bit of distortion.
.
Sylvain Lupari (October 17th, 2014)
gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca
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.
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.)
“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.
“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 2014
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