Artist: Odyssey
P: 2012
CD1
Out of the darkness, there comes our subway - now we can join the sound-journey through underground labyrinths. At about the second-minute-mark pure environmental sounds turn into a splendid sequential composition containing many Oxygene - and Equinoxe - like sound effects. Pay attention to the spicy and fantastically produced rhythm-line - well, it really could be a piece conceived by Wolfram Spyra...
This enjoyable introduction flows into the aerodynamic ambience of the second track. Those who are in love with sequential electronica will indeed be fond of the static, cloudy chord accompanying the leading synths. Soon a thunderstorm is coming - with the 3rd minute mark the sweeps and washes of strong wind seem to want to blow the speakers! The third track is an ingenious, nostalgic tale one might associate with Electric Light Orchestra's Another Heart Breaks - just listen to these echoes and light traces in an endless electronic tunnel! Here we also get a nice Berlin-fashioned solo. Every now and then, one thought comes to mind: it's pretty hard to name the best track in the whole set, since already the very first notes of each impression are truly magic, deep and dreamy in a very special way. Now we may enjoy the fourth piece; what we are dealing with here are mainly "laser-harp" sequences, the whole piece sounds as if it was played on invisible, hard-to-catch neon zigzags. Truly hypnotic, strong ten minutes.
The next track is somewhat close to the early works of Marek Bilinski. All important ingredients are there: high-places moods, pitch changes, melodic and yet very original tunes joining each other in electronic cascades. After only three minutes of this amazing mood there appear the polyphonic structures of a sequential concerto for a rainy day. The seventh piece covers suddenly the arpeggios of the former track with majestic chords; soon there joins in a groovy rhythm and a nice solo. The eighth track pulses with a bass - almost "motor-bass" - rhythm sequence; now our wagons slide through tunnel-labyrinths at a tremendous speed and the only thing accompanying our journey is the jarring light of spectacularly stereophonic sequencers! The final piece of the first CD once more conjures up some Jean-Michel Jarre-like atmospheres, but the nicely chromatic synth-solo and a swooshy percussion line give some new quality to it. As a whole, this piece also reminds the Listener of a marvellous Time-longplay by the Electric Light Orchestra.
CD2
The first track is a majestic tale that is being painted on cold-chord canvas. Not even four minutes have passed and there appear some beats - marking the entrance of the second piece - accompanied with a lively sequential structure, forming an interesting contrast to the quiet chords.
The third composition is probably the most abstract one in the whole set; among endless dreamy clouds we suddenly see fluorescent sea-horses and match-stroke-chains - or perhaps it's only a cognitive illusion?... How long has this journey already taken, where are we at all? As if awoken from a strange dream, we take an entirely astonished look at our surroundings. Because of the truly "arctic" atmosphere of the fourth piece we can easily imagine that we are entering a numb endless tunnel built from ice and snow - this track is an utmost beautiful 3-minute ambient composition.
Our fifth station is a polyphonic arpeggiator construction, now and then flashing about with its blue ounces of electric light. As soon as we enter the sixth piece, our wagons begin to move faster and faster, once more through a creepy snow-ice-tunnel, but now everything's filled up with life, everything is moving, flashing, endless lights are being reflected and distorted... Along with the seventh track the wagons slow down, it seems that we have ceased to move forward at all - or perhaps we have just started a motionless dream? Once more we don't have the slightest idea where we are and how long we have been travelling, and still this hasn't a bit of an uneasy feeling to it!
The eighth track captures us with its fragile crunchy sounds - we are moving through navy-blue pipeline-labyrinths. Thanks to the chilling atmosphere of the ninth piece we may find ourselves in the real world again. With a groovy sequence in the background we begin to recognize faces of all the passengers, there is nothing alien behind the wagon windows, everything sounds earthly again.
We are leaving on the tenth station. The echo of the corridor amplifies the sound of our footsteps, chilly chords are calling to each other somewhere near, the world awakes, even the first rays of the rising sun are already there, chasing us out of the subway tunnel. The staircase of the mid-tempo sequence carry us out back to the ground level. It has been an amazing journey indeed...
Igor Wroblewski
Weight:
0,105
kg per
piece