Syndromeda (aka Danny Budts from Belgium) produces exemplary electronic music that combines dreaminess and vitality. Here are a batch of his recent releases...
SYNDROMEDA: The Twilight Conjunction (limited edition CD on Ricochet Dream)
This CD from 2009 offers 68 minutes of dazzling electronic music.
Some highly-charged tuneage here, with surging electronics and nimble-fingered keyboards that will delight EM enthusiasts.
The first track starts off at high speed and escalates from there, maintaining an urgent pace that leaves the listener breathless and highly entertained as the grim melody plunges through several engaging variations. While percussion plays no viable role, the electronics provide strong rhythmics. Eventually, the velocity settles into a wind-down of crisp definition.
Things get darker (and less frenzied) for the second piece, as the electronics conjure a spooky environment of pulsating tones which pursue a melodramatic rise, ultimately erupting into a fervor of momentous ascension.
With the next track, cosmic elements amalgamate to generate a piercing tension. Buzzing tones and shrill chords conspire to produce a rich drama that sets the audience on the edge of their seats as sharp notes burst forth and wobble with thrilling provocation.
Percussion finally enters the mix with the fourth piece, lending a chugging locomotion to this relatively moderate melody ("moderate" compared to the hyperactivity found in previous tracks). Dreamy electronics support lively riffs that engender a sense of slow-burning awe. Squealing keyboards establish an excitable mood just in time for a smoldering finale.
The last track adopts a more heavenly mode with airy textures and hints of a remote choir which gradually builds to an astral pinnacle of blazing glory.
These compositions are energized and tastily dazzling, resulting in a thoroughly rewarding album of powerhouse electronic music.
SYNDROMEDA:Best of the Tapes & Unreleased (double CD on SinSyn)
This release from 2008 features 143 minutes of noble electronic music originating between 1995 and 2002.
Texturals and keyboard electronics generate tunes of noble stature. Percussion helps to boost the music to sovereign eminence.
Harmonic tones are used to produce foundations of moody atmospherics, but the real emphasis is on the agile keyboards that occupy the music's foreground.
The keyboards establish stately riffs which are then looped to run behind fresh cycles. These layers are regularly embellished. Transformations flow into intricate weaves, resulting in a constantly evolving pastiche that keeps the melodies lively. The sonic palette which Budts utilizes is crisp and varied, but the sounds generally sparkle with an uplifting predilection, imbuing the music with a cosmic mien.
Although many of the songs embody a gentle mode of delivery, some of the tunes flourish with a distinct hyperactivity, combining keyboard streams of remarkable velocity to achieve an exhausting approximation of swift propulsion.
E-perc contributions are present in several pieces, lending snappy rhythms which serve to enhance the compositions' already-prevalent level of animation. At other times, rhythms are used to heighten the song's drama with anticipatory tension.
Auxiliary effects can be found liberally scattered throughout the songs: shrill cries, orchestral swells, radio samples, or moody growlings. Often these elements serve to lend the tracks a specific flavor, as in the case of radio snippets from World War II establishing a chronological context for that piece.
These compositions exhibit a majestic character. Even the softer pieces possess an elevated sense of awe. This grandiose nature is common among Syndromeda's music. These songs smolder with a puissance that envelopes the listener instead of pummeling them, cocooning the audience and carrying them aloft, buoyed on melodies of inspired grandeur.
VON HAULSHOVEN MEETS SYNDROMEDA: Von Haulshoven Meets Syndromeda (CD on SinSyn)
This release from 2008 offers 69 minutes of long-form electronic music.
Dreamy atmospherics establish a soothing foundation, and a variety of gentle embellishments deepen the serenity. With only three tracks on this release, the music is afforded the opportunity to flow into epic structures of pacific resonance.
Airy textures unfurl into expansive vistas of gaseous electronics in track one. Auxiliary tones waft in, tempering the drift with their tenuous influence. Astral keyboards rise with ambient chords, injecting traces of melody to the harmonic panorama. As these riffs thicken, accruing moderate strength, pulsating rhythms are introduced, goading the composition toward more energetic passages. This increase in density leads to active intricacy as the riffs evolve to keep up with the tempos. The tune is gradually climbing, moving through cloud strata, striving for a tranquil majesty, a purple stain against the dark heavens. Once a suitable altitude is achieved, the music relents and slowly indulges in a pleasant descent into ambience.
Darker tonalities usher in the second piece, with vocal snippets generating a sense of agitation which is adroitly enhanced by crisp percussion. An urgent quality is expressed by mounting electronics as nimble keyboards accumulate with dramatic animation. Vitality increases and the riffs create a rich tapestry that flexes and swells with each passing moment. Having achieved its pinnacle, the tune sheds its intensity and settles into a decaying spiral into pensive moodiness.
The last track employs similar tactics with a gentle opening that accretes power and velocity as the music expands to impressive stature. The complex interplay of various riffs produces an alluring divinity tinged with a tasty dose of pep. Escalation provides several breathtaking passages as the tune progresses through tiers of magnified development, ultimately breaking free of gravity to soar on wings of ethereal puissance.
While possessing a deceptively temperate opening, this album displays engaging zest with sprightly riffs and mounting tension, all the while tuning into a fundamental inner strength mustered from carefully crafted dreaminess. That placid whimsy builds to epic proportions of sparkling verve. The melodies are bewitching and stimulating.
AMIN: Sadhana (CD on SinSyn)
This release from 2008 features 65 minutes of ethnic ambience.
With this release, Budts explores the use of vocal effects in conjunction with his repertoire of textural electronics. A Middle Eastern influence is predominant.
In track one, luxuriant electronics create a lavish vista of ethereal tranquillity. Soothing tonalities are adroitly seasoned by dreamy keyboards and sultry, understated e-perc. As the long piece progresses, the bongos muster velocity and intricacy, matched by an increase in the density of the atmospheric textures.
The second piece employs treated vocal drones to generate a haunting milieu. An accordion approximation lends a strange edge to this Middle Eastern excursion. Muted rhythms rise from the pensive sonic pool, accompanied by shriller tones that commence delineating a whimsically divergent melody, all of which eventually concedes ground to the ongoing vocal growl.
Next, things get moody as the vocal effects evolve into Muslim prayers in tandem with a synthetic snarl. Meanwhile, the background tones transform into a suitably Middle Eastern melody, supported by a rise of ethnic rhythms.
The fourth track is brief, examining bent voice and zither with ethnic bongos providing a sedate propulsion.
The next piece is another long one (nearly 20 minutes), allowing the introspective harmonics ample opportunity to establish an expansive twilight of introspection. Vaporous electronics generate a calm firmament that is flavored by extended flutish notes of a shrill nature. A fog of vocal origin coalesces from the distance, achieving a subtle connotation of spiritual expectation.
The last track adopts a darker mien with ominous pulsations punctuated by stately piano which ushers in a grandiose finale of divine chorales.
Budts' fusion of ambient electronics and Middle Eastern vocal drones produces tuneage of deep contemplative character.
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