THIERRY DAVID
Stellar Connection
Real Music (2012)
The last thing that any long-time fan of the Real Music
label would expect was for them to release a serious spacemusic recording - and
I don't mean "la-di-da" flowery spacemusic, I mean spacemusic, (in the same vein as
Meg Bowles and John Lyell). Maybe I'm wrong in that assumption, but I've reviewing
music from Real Music for 17 years and I know I sure as hell was shocked the
first time I listened to Thierry David's Stellar
Connection. The opening track, "Portal Quest," kicks off the
album with darkly tinted drones, swirling synths, and a palpable sense of
forlorn loneliness. I did a double take and made sure the right CD had been in
the jewel case. Yup, the CD was the right one. I settled in and played the
album all the way through and thought, "Well, I'll be damned." Stellar Connection is a spot-on soundtrack
for a first-class cruising expedition past the limits of our solar system, out toward
the Andromeda galaxy or the Crab nebula or even beyond. Stellar work (pun
intended) by David, indeed!
The French artist, whose previous releases on Real Music
were either chill-out (Zen Pause),
New Age/world beat (Zen World) or new
age/world vocal (The Veil of Whispers),
reveals an incredible talent for crafting ambient/spacemusic that drifts and
cruises. Some tracks flow darkly, painting a sonic portrait of the desolate
emptiness of space, tinted with a terrible sense of awe mixed with subtle,
somber beauty. Other selections may infuse rhythms that suggest slow but
purposeful cruising among the cosmos, perhaps planet hopping in different solar
systems, or maybe surveying a distant world's surface. Track titles make it
abundantly clear that David is purposefully training his musician's eye toward
the distant stars. While some selections are melodic enough in a structured way
that this disc will not alienate (no pun intended this time) his new age or
chill-out fans, even songs that use echoed piano and warmer synth sounds still
contain enough of an outer space atmospheric texture and feel that this album
should find acceptance among an ambient fanbase, provided they are not looking
for dronefests devoid of any melodic or rhythmic content.
Make no mistake, though. Some of the cuts on Stellar Connection are decidedly not new
age (at least not by definition I would use). Besides the opening "Portal
Quest," there is "Magnetic Spiral" which opens with layers of
drones and pure textural sounds and eerie effects, before slowly evolving into
a repeating series of pulses, tribal-esque rhythms, and a minor key echoed
piano refrain, the latter of which evokes a deep loneliness and solitude.
"Feeling a Stellar Pulse" blends alien-ish electronic textures with a
repeating reverbed melodic pattern (again in a minor key) and more tribal
percussion (this track reminded me of Robyn Miller's superb soundtrack for the
computer game "Riven"). The short (2:00) "The Realm of the
Golden helix" is pure, dark, deep spacedrift, with overlapping synth
washes, drones, and vaguely metallic tones, as is the closing song, "A
Silent Voice Answers," which ups the "creepy but cool" factor to
a solid 11.
Other selections on the album include "Plenty of
Space" (smooth layers of gently sighing keyboards blended with long,
lonely peals of deeply echoed electric guitar), "A Long Crossing"
(slow, metronomic rhythms, trumpet-like solos, and a forlorn sparse piano
melody with a discernible sense of sadness, anchoring it all), "Surfing
the Blue Orbit" (a relatively bubbly mixture of assorted bell and hang
drum-like tones, shimmering textures, piano, and a rhythmic textures that are
somewhere between mid and fast tempo), and "Galactic Bliss"
(beginning as a warm space-drifting number and morphs into pleasantly
chattering keyboards set against synth washes infused with some uptempo
chill-out flavors as the track progresses).
There are thirteen tracks on Stellar Connection (some not mentioned above) for the listener to
delve into and this album will reward total immersion using headphones. The
carefully nuanced background music and textural effects will emerge on each
successive play. Thierry David's recordings on Real Music have revealed him to
be a meticulous artist who knows the magic is in the details, and Stellar Connection is proof of that. I
consider the album near essential if you enjoy spacemusic that can really take
you "out there" (provided you have the imagination for just such a
trip). The album is a wholly unexpected delight from one of the shining lights
in new age music and showcases
a side of Thierry David that I sure hope to hear more from in the future.
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