“An album without borders where the art of EM finds its nobility in a highly creative album filled of bright ideas”
1 Retorno a los Mares Inconclusos (Primera Parte) 18:56
2 El Abismo 5:53
3 Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Segunda Parte) 13:06
4 Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Tercera Parte) 19:33
(DDL 57:30) (V.F.)
(Berlin School, Experimental)
Another name and a new musical adventure from Cyclical Dreams Music! And the names change at the rate of new directions taken by the Argentinian label's new artists. Velocidad Crucero, roughly Cruising Speed, is the pseudonym of Chilean musician Marcos Pérez de Arce. His discography seems voluminous and we find the essentials on his YouTube channel. Inspired by Anthony Phillips and Mike Oldfield, Pérez de Arce began a career at the age of 14. Curious, he touches all styles, Jazz, Blues, Rock but his hobby remains progressive music. Keyboards and synthesizers continually feeding his curiosity, he undertakes to create a series of albums and to equip his studios with the Korg Volca range which is the main attraction of this album where the rhythms are born from dust to take forms that will take you on a journey through the ages of EM.
It's with a rhythm of the sequencer zigzagging around the bass-pulsations to surf on an organ layer with a sibylline appearance that Retorno a los Mares Inconclusos (Primera Parte) breaks the silence. We recognize the signature of the Korg Volca and their analog tones of sequencer that take us back more than 30 years earlier. The rhythm is convincing and steady whereas the organ layer strives for infinity as keyboard chords screw a melody whose dramatic 70's French tone projects film music. The first 4 minutes of Retorno a los Mares Inconclusos (Primera Parte) are heavy and catchy. Except that a bridge of chthonic atmospheres filled with the murmurs of a big organ to scare away the curious and industrial reverberations settle for almost 2 minutes. The rhythm picks up again afterwards. Sensibly the same as at the beginning of the title, it no longer zigzags and displays a reverberating and organic coherence under this French melody. Surprisingly, this passage reminds me of Mojave Plan found on Tangerine Dream's White Eagle album. Another musical change around 8:30 minutes! A delicate moment with a light piano and its club tune on a hot afternoon. A croak begins to skip in the background. Following this initial rhythmic pattern, it pulsates all in fat dressed, in an ambience still inspired by TD, Tangram period. This organic rhythm is covered with scraps of worn melodies and sound effects from the Exit years. If it concedes a link with the original structure, its decor is made up of organic life with this melody which also lacks elements, but not enough to fully recognize its DNA. It sails by amplifying its sound up until the 3rd bridge of Retorno a los Mares Inconclusos (Primera Parte). The ambiences revolve around a jungle dispossessed of life and living from pulsating organic matter. These are ocean breezes and winds inspiring inert materials to become musical effects from which a structure of nervous sequences emerges after the 15 minute. The rhythm undulates, skipping like a big snake on the keyboard of a progressive rock organ undulating with pleasure under the caresses of good synth solos. Let's say that the last 3 minutes are the zenith of this excellent track where we finally recognize where the rhythmic essence comes from. Tangent of the Poland album by the Dream! It's more than very obvious after listening to El Abismo. Its flow is slow with a cinematographic vision of pompous films of the Gladiators genre. The melody is all delicate spinning like the song of a nightingale stuck in a carousel. The synth throws fabulous solos here which turn into a mine of sorrow to return to this hopping rhythm which trembles with vertigo when its flow is downright increased in rhythmic ride. Very good!
Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Segunda Parte) and Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Tercera Parte) are built on the same principle as Retorno a los Mares Inconclusos (Primera Parte), ie phases of rhythms versus ambient phases. Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Segunda Parte) begins with a spheroidal hopping rhythm of the sequencer well supported by a bass pulsation. The decor is rich in effects and in the whining melody that clings to it. I have a distant memory of Vangelis here, while the mellotron inspires more of a 70's genre. The initial sequence hopped on its own to disappear into mist waterlogged of issshhh a little after 3 minutes. This much more ambient passage is a corridor towards the analog years with these winds and these organ layers are floating and drifting into the unknown. This ambient moment brings us to a celestial phase some 4 minutes later with filaments of sound that spin like spiral lines in the colors of a rainbow on a structure bouncing like the heart of an organic machine. We arrive at the 10th minute to hear Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Segunda Parte) crumble the rest of its sonic filaments in an ambient phase… very ambient.
From the height of its almost 20 minutes, Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Tercera Parte) fills our ears to the rim! Not 30 seconds have elapsed when a violent nervous rhythm begins to shake the drums of our eardrums vigorously. A spasmodic and hyper jerky rhythm with cosmic effects and synth solos à la Tim Blake including phases of harmonies which follow one another in an infernal rhythm. This movement extinguishes its last beat a few seconds after 3 minutes, a recurring pattern in the structures of RETORNO A LOS MARES INCONCLUSOS. A bank of mist from the Mellotron advances towards our ears with the clicking of a timeless clock. Very dense, this mist covers structures of ephemeral rhythms with this scent of Edgar Froese on mellotron from which a heavy and dark rhythm escapes some 5 minutes later. Our ears meet here a wonderful phase of percussive effects which ring and resonate in the harmonies of this unshaven melody of the beginning of Retorno a los mares inconclusos (Tercera Parte). This phase which stretches over 4 minutes brings us to an organ gargantuan and its series of mephistophelic chords stretching over 3 minutes before a light rhythm structure with vocoder takes us back to the heart of the 80's with a Neuronium's style.
Another pleasant surprise from Cyclical Dreams, Velocidad Crucero weaves with RETORNO A LOS MARES INCONCLUSOS an album without borders where the art of EM finds its nobility with a highly creative album. A very good album filled with beautiful flashes that are scattered over long distances and across bridges of transitions which constantly maintain a common thread so that our ears do not get lost. An excellent album for those ears who always ask for a little more ...
Sylvain Lupari (March 2nd, 2021) *****
Available at Cyclical Dreams Bandcamp