ANDREAS AKWARA: Blue Velvet (CD on AA Music, distributed by Groove Unlimited)
This release from 2009 offers 68 minutes of noble electronic music.
A grandiose mood is generated by lavish texturals seasoned by heavenly chorales and harpsichord punctuations. Bubbling diodes sweep through the gathering soundscape, heralding the emergence of melody from this brewing pool of harmonic definition.
Coalescing into dramatic substance, keyboards guide the newborn melody into an ascension of resplendent glory. Electronic cycles unfurl, delineating compelling passages of mounting eloquence. Riffs sashay into prominence, expressing a delightful majesty, only to be supplanted by fresh threads which perpetuate the music’s uplifting direction. Clever variations generate a constant luster that captivates the listener.
E-perc plays a vital role in this tuneage. While maintaining a presence in equilibrium to the rest of the music, the rhythms provide locomotion for the electronics, injecting an urgency that dependably escalates into rewarding pinnacles of euphoric ecstasy. A regal demeanor marks these tempos. Despite their synthesized origin, they are skillfully generated to sound natural, resounding with emotional cadence and excellently fitting with the stratospheric qualities achieved by the electronics.
Numerous riffs are established, only to entwine with each other, transforming the gestalt into luscious structures of tenacious vitality. A sense of optimism is accomplished as these layers merge and evolve, communicating cooperation as a worthwhile ambition.
Deeply resonant tones are employed to conjure an oracular motif. These electronics blossom with amiable authority, describing inspired melodies crafted with divine intentions.
These compositions exude a powerful aura of demonstrative nobility. The bewitching melodies involved in their essence delivers a staunch rank of sonic gratification.
ASHEN SIMIAN: Omicron in Ostrobothnian Finsternis (CD on Retroduction)
This release from 2009 offers 54 minutes of lively electronic music.
Ashen Simian is Ami Hassinen (from Nemesis).
While Nemesis’ music is usually moody and ambient, this solo release explores more rhythmic territory with lush melodies and amiably urgent percussion.
The electronics possess energized puissance, expressing melodies that are rich with bounce and pep. Atmospheric textures are present, but these vaporous foundations often become swamped by the dominant electronics that propel the tunes. Hosts of glittering effects lurk in the mix, circling the central themes like silver linings injected into already lustrous clouds.
Keyboards delineate compelling riffs that surge with bewitching appeal. There’s a diversity among those keyboards too, blending piano with more electronic keys to generate a lush sonic presence. While cycles are established and set to loop in the background, auxiliary keyboard riffs provide tasty embellishment, providing a constant state of fresh resonance.
Percussion plays a prominent role contributing to the vitality of the music. The beats are crisp and loaded with cybernetic vigor. While most of the percussion is artificial, some of the rhythms resound with the cadence of conventional drums, seasoning the music with a touch of sincerity. Frequently, several tempos run at once, establishing rhythms of alluring complexity.
Tastes of stellar guitar and thumping bass can be found peppered throughout several tracks, enlivening the already buoyant tuneage.
These compositions infuse dreamy melodies with a pleasantly demonstrative animation that is further enhanced by lively rhythms. Even the more gentle pieces blossom with an undercurrent of zest. A sense of steady exhilaration is achieved with these spry tunes.
PAUL ELLIS: The Last Hiding Place of Beauty (CD on Groove Unlimited)
This release from 2009 offers 60 minutes of beautiful electronic music.
This music displays a winsome fragility with its lavish electronics applied with restraint to conjure a mood of appreciation for inner beauty over extravagant flash.
The electronics are very fluid, seasoning harmonic textures with pleasant melodies. Lovely riffs are established, then loop and allowed to transform through interaction with other sonic elements. A degree of synthetic effects produces a quirky undercurrent that nicely enhances the romantic air embodied by the tunes.
While rhythms are employed, these tempos maintain a gentility that submerges them in the mix instead of making the beats stand out as a method of propulsion. They contribute locomotion, but only on a subtle level.
There are moments of intensity, but even these are colored with a sense of control that suppresses any harshness, leaving these pinnacles to glisten with amiable sanguinity.
Synthesized woodwinds appear briefly in the first track’s intro, but they feature prominently in the third piece, evoking a pastoral demeanor to balance the music’s general organic feeling. Gentle guitars also contribute to this track, producing a lovely melancholy in tandem with twinkling chimes and ethereal atmospheric tones.
This soothing guitar ( which escalates from strumming to twangy definition) is continued in the last piece, generating a romantic air that builds in strength with the introduction of actual drums, bell-tones and moodily deep electronics.
With only four tracks on this album, these compositions are afforded ample room to establish themselves and exhibit charming evolutions. The melodies are pacific and superbly capture a sense of beauty that is often absent in modern EM. Instead of being expansive, these tunes tend to constrict the listener’s attention, helping them to focus on details both audible and internal.
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