Frore & Shane Morris – Blood MoonSylvain Lupari (April 26th, 2015)
A little as the reflections of the moon which wrap a too quiet evening in a Jurassic jungle, the introduction of “Lichen Patterns” rises between our ears with an ochred lamentation which is about to reveal the intense nocturnal activities of “Blood Moon”. A mixture of opalescent and blackened synth waves, where some shamanic hoarse grumbles are joining, the opening of “Lichen Patterns” proposes a very sibylline sound shroud before being delicately shaken by a meshing of manual percussions. Then we plunge into the charms of this first collaboration between the designer by excellence of suffocating prehistoric ambiences, Shane Morris, and Frore; a musician whom I don’t really know and whose name is in reality Paul Casper. The aboriginal tom-toms and the knocks of the very metronomic bass percussions are sculpturing a kind of slow trance dance whereas the multiplicity of the synth lines, and their tones so full of particles of prisms than as of perfumes of graphite, exhale ambiences where spectres hum in a sonic fauna to the thousand ambiospherical delights. Divided between rhythms of spiritual trance, sculptured by a wide range of ancestral percussions, and rich meditative moods, fed by an impressive pallet of sounds, “Blood Moon” offers an interesting sonic journey where the comparisons between some of Steve Roach‘s pilgrimages into the aboriginal lands cannot simply be avoided. If the percussions seduce, the sonic decorations and the synth soundscapes are not outdone with a plenty of synths lines painted of seductive colors which will capture a hearing in need of adornment and with effects which plunge the same listener into territories bordering virgin appearances. Organic or psychic, electronic or acoustic, esoteric or exoteric; these effects give more brilliances to the percussions which peck nervously at the 5 soundscapes of “Blood Moon”.
If “Lichen Patterns” offers a rather relaxing structure, “Ritual Sequence” raises the level of intensity with more hectic percussions. Percussions which plough heathen moods fed by the groans of Didge, the muffled songs of spectres and those of the flutes with a tint of blowpipe. The structure reminds me extremely Steve Roach, especially with those synth lines floating such as long lassoes without preys to catch, in his quest of the Australian deserts with tones and organic pulsations which are smothered by a dense layer of synth to the very ancestral aromas. “Orison” distances itself from the usual style of Shane Morris with a clearly more tribal approach. One would say a ritual dance of the Middle East with lively percussions and with airs of Armenian flutes; the Duduks. If the percussions play a leading role in “Blood Moon”, the rhythms to which they give birth are not less very peaceful here. So, “Unfolding” is closer of Steve Roach‘s ambient tribal universe than “Ritual Sequence“. In fact both titles are closely bound by the same atmospheres, aboriginal flutes in less. If the percussions are also well fed, they are less strong and let glitter ringings of carillons which throw an aura of incantatory mysticism on the most ambient, the most serene track of “Blood Moon”. I like it! And the sonic shroud is filled with small hearing pleasures which are going to delight those who are gourmand of sounds and tones. “Night Rapture” is the highlight of “Blood Moon”. The intro grows slowly with percussions which trace a laborious ascent. Little by little the pace accentuates its cadence beneath muffled growls, which stretch in long reverberations, and synth lines of which some are escaping and form shadows which float like ethereal songs. It’s dark, heavy and insistent. Like an ambient trance! The subtle crescendo is very wrapping. Between the uncomfortable blackness of the nights of agitation and the hypnosis of the continual upward percussions, “Night Rapture” infiltrates our senses with a merciless will of bewitchment. The ambient stubborn rhythm is always climbing these timeless staircases while that some rich synth lines are erupting, such as slow waves rolling with harmonies always a little muddled up which inject a mix of ethereal and sibylline ambiences. This is incredibly mesmerizing. Our eardrums tremble under the din of the percussions. The wild approach of “Night Rapture” evaporates bit by bit after the 12th minute into some shivers and insect noises, ending so a journey at the end of the ominous and fascinating ambiences of “Blood Moon”; an album in the same lineage as Proof Positive and Spiral Meditations by Steve Roach. A very beautiful album which opens new perspectives to the ambient tribal genre, due to the wealth of its rhythms and its soundscapes to the evolutions as much audacious than the ingenuity behind the multiplicity of the patterns of manual percussions.
Sylvain Lupari (April 26th, 2015)
gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca
You will find this album or a link to order it on the Spotted Peccary webshop here
If “Lichen Patterns” offers a rather relaxing structure, “Ritual Sequence” raises the level of intensity with more hectic percussions. Percussions which plough heathen moods fed by the groans of Didge, the muffled songs of spectres and those of the flutes with a tint of blowpipe. The structure reminds me extremely Steve Roach, especially with those synth lines floating such as long lassoes without preys to catch, in his quest of the Australian deserts with tones and organic pulsations which are smothered by a dense layer of synth to the very ancestral aromas. “Orison” distances itself from the usual style of Shane Morris with a clearly more tribal approach. One would say a ritual dance of the Middle East with lively percussions and with airs of Armenian flutes; the Duduks. If the percussions play a leading role in “Blood Moon”, the rhythms to which they give birth are not less very peaceful here. So, “Unfolding” is closer of Steve Roach‘s ambient tribal universe than “Ritual Sequence“. In fact both titles are closely bound by the same atmospheres, aboriginal flutes in less. If the percussions are also well fed, they are less strong and let glitter ringings of carillons which throw an aura of incantatory mysticism on the most ambient, the most serene track of “Blood Moon”. I like it! And the sonic shroud is filled with small hearing pleasures which are going to delight those who are gourmand of sounds and tones. “Night Rapture” is the highlight of “Blood Moon”. The intro grows slowly with percussions which trace a laborious ascent. Little by little the pace accentuates its cadence beneath muffled growls, which stretch in long reverberations, and synth lines of which some are escaping and form shadows which float like ethereal songs. It’s dark, heavy and insistent. Like an ambient trance! The subtle crescendo is very wrapping. Between the uncomfortable blackness of the nights of agitation and the hypnosis of the continual upward percussions, “Night Rapture” infiltrates our senses with a merciless will of bewitchment. The ambient stubborn rhythm is always climbing these timeless staircases while that some rich synth lines are erupting, such as slow waves rolling with harmonies always a little muddled up which inject a mix of ethereal and sibylline ambiences. This is incredibly mesmerizing. Our eardrums tremble under the din of the percussions. The wild approach of “Night Rapture” evaporates bit by bit after the 12th minute into some shivers and insect noises, ending so a journey at the end of the ominous and fascinating ambiences of “Blood Moon”; an album in the same lineage as Proof Positive and Spiral Meditations by Steve Roach. A very beautiful album which opens new perspectives to the ambient tribal genre, due to the wealth of its rhythms and its soundscapes to the evolutions as much audacious than the ingenuity behind the multiplicity of the patterns of manual percussions.
Sylvain Lupari (April 26th, 2015)
gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca
You will find this album or a link to order it on the Spotted Peccary webshop here
http://synthsequences.blogspot.ca/2015/04/frore-shane-morris-blood-moon-2015.html
Shane Morris & Mystified – EvolutionSylvain Lupari – October 8th,2014
A breeze coming from the time widens a silky fluty blanket. Its dreamlike song raises a thick cloud of drones which eventually float like this light morning mist of which the suspended droplets moisten the dense Neanderthal forests. The dew dried up, the drones breathe within communicative breaths while the wooden jingles are drawing a ghost rhythm. The drumming arouse the curiosity of pulsations isolated in this leafy sonic vegetation from where wake up the stridulations of huge locusts. “Fire Gathering” takes then a tangent unknown in this Inspired Evolution series with percussions which knock down the ambiances became a little more threatening. Navigating in the seas of aboriginal and tribal moods ofSteveRoach, ByronMetcalf and of Mark Seelig, ShaneMorris & Mystified are surprising with a conclusion at least clearly more aggressive than on the first 2 opuses of their trilogy. Between the mysticism of a society disappeared since millenniums and the paranormal of the contemporary tones, “Evolution” always offers these ambiences which are near the spiritual contemplativity as well as an impressive sonic pallet which this time breathe through rhythms as lively as creative. “Fire Gathering” continuous then its sonic breakthrough, just like a Cro-Magnon man discovers the dangers of his territories of hunting. The tension is tangible and each knock of percussions spreads a filmic aura, in addition to sharpening the tones of the heterogeneous noises and the organic jingles which nibble at these hollow vibes and these winds come of between mountains which sneak such as a false soothing wave.
Simply sublime, “Growing into New Territory” offers an array of beatings which sparkle and skip in a very dialectical approach. One would say a race of fragile small-steps which avoid the same traps, while the lines of synth are spreading an ambient soundscape, and so very soothing, which covers a forest half sleepy. “Waiting for the Storm to Pass” reminds me the ambient, organic and shamanic rhythms from the tandem Roach/Metcalf. In spite that the track remains quiet, we feel a threat floating throughout its 13 minutes. ShaneMorris & Mystified may claim to create a prehistoric tone, at times we believe in it firmly, that the spectral approach of a secret society also perspires all through the 60 minutes of “Evolution”. And this even if we dive in the heart of luxuriant aboriginal vibes with “Waiting for the Storm to Pass” and its frame-drums’ tomtoms which make us travel just like being on the wings of a huge insect and flying with the wave-like of synth lines. The breaths of caves and the long drones, all both rather musical, decorate the ambiospherical intro of “Hunting in the Hills”. The fusion weaves a rather serene approach. Other more resonant synth lines are spreading some iridescent curves among which the magnetic singings and the reverberating pads arouse the awakening of the cymbalisation of the wooden cicadas. Hollow voices, which borrow the tones of frame-drums, and shamanic rattlers are quietly driving the serenity of “Hunting in the Hills” towards a more frightening passage, drawing the images that we visualize of a prey at the end of its resources. “The Trials of Evolved Man” seduced just as much with its docile pulsatory rhythm. The movement of the pulsations may be sustained; one would say an ambient techno with these jingles which adorn its parasitic gravity, that it awakens not at all the passivity of the synth lines, rather musical and very soothing I have to specify, which float such as the caresses of the gods on a fauna torn between its peace of mind and the rebellion of its mini-inhabitants. This very beautiful track throws a magnetizing crescendo, plunging the listener into a fascinating morphic state and so looping the loop of a trilogy of which we already regret its final part.
Simply sublime, “Growing into New Territory” offers an array of beatings which sparkle and skip in a very dialectical approach. One would say a race of fragile small-steps which avoid the same traps, while the lines of synth are spreading an ambient soundscape, and so very soothing, which covers a forest half sleepy. “Waiting for the Storm to Pass” reminds me the ambient, organic and shamanic rhythms from the tandem Roach/Metcalf. In spite that the track remains quiet, we feel a threat floating throughout its 13 minutes. ShaneMorris & Mystified may claim to create a prehistoric tone, at times we believe in it firmly, that the spectral approach of a secret society also perspires all through the 60 minutes of “Evolution”. And this even if we dive in the heart of luxuriant aboriginal vibes with “Waiting for the Storm to Pass” and its frame-drums’ tomtoms which make us travel just like being on the wings of a huge insect and flying with the wave-like of synth lines. The breaths of caves and the long drones, all both rather musical, decorate the ambiospherical intro of “Hunting in the Hills”. The fusion weaves a rather serene approach. Other more resonant synth lines are spreading some iridescent curves among which the magnetic singings and the reverberating pads arouse the awakening of the cymbalisation of the wooden cicadas. Hollow voices, which borrow the tones of frame-drums, and shamanic rattlers are quietly driving the serenity of “Hunting in the Hills” towards a more frightening passage, drawing the images that we visualize of a prey at the end of its resources. “The Trials of Evolved Man” seduced just as much with its docile pulsatory rhythm. The movement of the pulsations may be sustained; one would say an ambient techno with these jingles which adorn its parasitic gravity, that it awakens not at all the passivity of the synth lines, rather musical and very soothing I have to specify, which float such as the caresses of the gods on a fauna torn between its peace of mind and the rebellion of its mini-inhabitants. This very beautiful track throws a magnetizing crescendo, plunging the listener into a fascinating morphic state and so looping the loop of a trilogy of which we already regret its final part.
“Evolution” is a surprising album of ambient music which rivets the eater of sounds that we are in a mode of constant listening. A rather unique exploit for an album of ambient music. The soft rhythms, the caresses of synths and their unique electronic dialects, as much as those brilliant acoustic percussions coupled to the multiple quirky tones give a rather unique sonic texture which exceeds even the borders, nevertheless splendidly defined by Steve Roach and his accomplices, of a landscaped and aboriginal music. This is the very beautiful album that offers usShaneMorris & Mystified . One of the best in the genre. Magnetizing, bewitching and simply superb!
Sylvain Lupari (October 8th,2014)
http://synthsequences.blogspot.com/2014/10/shane-morris-mystified-evolution-2014.html