“I was quite blown away by this album which makes excellent transitions between Heaven and Hell”
1 Brahma-Loke 11:13
2 The Climb 7:03
3 The Garden 7:43
4 From Oneself to the Universe 8:15
5 Soul Transfer 4:34
6 Astral Plane 7:37
7 Out the Garden 7:41
8 Mourning of the Past 1:58
9 End of Game 5:00
10 Brahma-Loke (B version-Bonus track) 8:05
(CD 69:02) (V.F.)
(Analog EM)
The falling notes resonate like the footsteps of Darkness, this creature from the movie Legend. These resonances install a shroud of reverberations that will stick to the ambiences of these 60 minutes of this esoteric story skillfully set to music by Richard Raffaillac. Balls pick up the sound dust and transform into oscillating loops which roll and hop together with a fascinating organic language which has just been added to Brahma-Loke. Chthonian grunts are also added to this slow and overwhelming procession, while a discreet synth line already installs a sibylline air which turns into a nasal chant drifting between the universes of Kryfels and of Synergy, the time of Cords. A comparison which explains the high degree of creativity of the analog instruments used here and that will enchant your ears throughout BRAHMA-LOKE. The door of the 7 minutes stops this procession which freezes on the spot, letting parade and dance shimmering arpeggios. The movement regains momentum with a slight lessening of this line of vampiric bass, letting the same paranoid madness become encrusted on the walls of the void. EM is like bringing our ears to a movie! Everything is possible with the infinite possibilities of synths and sequencers. Like here in BRAHMA-LOKE for a melodic and sound journey on the theme of Paradise. And Kryfels has aimed right! Except that this time, the corridors of Purgatory are tortuous, while the doors of Hell communicate directly with that of Eden in an album of a sound richness as incredible as its history.
Two years after Underlying, and especially Bulb, Richard Raffaillac returns to us in excellent form with the most complete and daring album of his career. BRAHMA-LOKE leaves plenty of room for his imagination to create an electronic symphony that eats our emotions. Everything turns great in this album where the titles aptly portray the ambiences that Kryfels designed to the delight of our ears. Thus, The Climb is a meditative title that has neither the emotional power nor the textural intensity of the title-track. And its procession is rather static with a degreased tone which makes us go back almost 50 years earlier with these perfumes of ether from Irrlicht, and the Farfisa. The breezes are magic while the ghostly impulses pull on the hairs of our sensitivity. Especially in its last minutes. After this ambient but comfortably melodious title, The Garden attacks our contemplative withdrawal with oscillating loops, and their limpid tones, which swirl vividly in a setting assumed by synth pads with tones of old organ and / or harpsichord. The rhythmic ride is ensured by a superb line of bass-sequences which rolls under a sky darkened by strata and nasal veils, giving a spectral vision to this fiery title rich in its synth solos forgotten between nasal layers. The rhythm straight like an arrow sinks at high speed in a setting that constantly changes the weight of its hearing ornaments. From Oneself to the Universe is a title of rich, almost cathedral-like atmospheres with layers and synth pads that twist and waltz lazily in a universe of sonic streaks too intense to be anesthetic. It's like a painful spiritual ascent. Ditto for Soul Transfer which is on the other hand darker in its cosmic decor disturbed by its elements of psybient.
Astral Plane is the most striking example that the borders of Heaven and Hell live on the same floor. Its rhythm is designed in a zigzagging approach whose harmonic portion weaves a pleasant earworm. Stable in its minimalist approach, it supports the weight of a fascinating sibylline melody whistled by a synth which could personify a goblin wandering by whistling a Luciferian tune. There is a subtle gradation in this sinuous spiral winding the steps of Eden which makes Astral Plane more musical and fluid. And even more intense with chimes tingling towards its finale. After a nice ambient introduction of 90 seconds, Out the Garden comes out as quickly as The Garden entered. Its rhythm is like a more active ride and its sound envelope is more contemporary with stationary layers with very Jean-Michel Jarre tones in an environment more of the Klaus Schulze genre. A magical title which also expels these finely sharp nasal tones that come from solos and whose linear chants crisscross a valley of tinkling and of vintage sound effects. Mourning of the Past begins with a loud growl that spreads its layers of reverberations flowing like an acid lava. End of Game ends BRAHMA-LOKE with a hopping ambient rhythm. The reverberations of the fluid steps make contact with an organic fauna while the synths with finely sharp tones metamorphose into giant sirens of alarm ululating for the lost souls. Shorter, the version B of Brahma-Loke makes disappear a final which also cuts its level of intensity. A bonus track that doesn't take away, nor add anything to this superb album of Kryfels.
BRAHMA-LOKE is one of the most intense albums I have heard lately. And when I speak of intensity, I rather refer to the sound texture of the album which constantly reminds me of the musical and experimental envelope of Cords by Larry Fast and his project Synergy. The intensity of BRAHMA-LOKE transposes and is transported from phase to phase, as from title to title, with a musical vision that meets the epic of its title. Rhythms, atmospheres and melodies thought, composed and transposed by synths and sequencers in a purely analogous context; I was quite blown away by this album which makes excellent transitions between Heaven and Hell.
Sylvain Lupari (July 10th, 2020) *****
Available at PWM Distrib