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░ ██ ██ Artist: Richard Barbieri ██ ██
▓ █░░ ■█ Album: Planets + Persona █■ ░░█
■ █▓▀ █ Year: 2017 █ ▀▓█ ░
█ ▓ Rel. Date: 2017-06-13 ▓ █
▒ ▒ Genre: Avantgarde ▒ ▒
█▄ ░ Label: Kscope Music ░ ▄█
░ █▄ ░ Source: CD ░ ▄█
░ █▓ Type: Album ▓█ ░
▓ █ Quality: VBR, 44.1kHz, Joint Stereo █ ░ ▓
▓ █ █ ░ ▓
▄ ■ ■ ▓ ■
░█ █░ ▀
█ Keyboards often play a supporting part in many █
█ ensembles, but Richard Barbieri still takes the █
█ idea farther than most. His roles as band member █
█ (in art-pop outfit Japan and eclectic rock band █
█ Porcupine Tree) have always been marked by a █
█ distinct lack of spotlighting. He works with █
█ atmospheres more than notes, and riffs or heads █
█ are the exception more than the rule. This doesn't █
█ mean his solo excursions are simple unobtrusive █
█ ambience or abstract noiseùrather, these are █
█ vividly immersive tapestries that manage to be █
█ familiar and alien at the same time. His music █
█ evokes endless vistas of faraway planets, like the █
█ futuristic offspring of Brian Eno and Massive █
█ Attack beamed in from another dimension. █
█ There's no need for mere melodies to stick in your █
█ head when the overall picture can transport your █
█ consciousness somewhere else entirely. While █
█ Planets + Persona clearly starts from a similar █
█ mold to its ambient-electronica predecessors, the █
█ scope is noticeably more vast. For each digital █
█ keyboard, there's an analog synth or piano to give █
█ more organic shadings. A sizable supporting cast █
█ adds world-spanning textures from electric bass to █
█ kalimba and kora. Underpinning most of the album █
█ is a steady percussion bed that shifts from light █
█ electro-beats to steady hypnotic trance. █
█ However spacious the landscapes are, they're █
█ always balanced out by a little human warmth █
█ somewhere. Lisen Rylander L÷ve's soft voice may be █
█ filtered until it's almost coming through a dream, █
█ but its witchy allure is always there even without █
█ any recognizable words. There's an element of █
█ jazzy improv in the presence of saxophone and █
█ trumpet, whether adding light melodies with an █
█ unobtrusive Miles Davis touch or (more often) █
█ floating through the atmosphere with the █
█ otherworldly calm of Jon Hassell. █
█ The whole is often minimal without becoming █
█ minimalistùeach element is applied as much as █
█ necessary to bring what's needed to the overall █
█ picture, no more and no less. The rhythmic █
█ underpinnings can burble lightly, like alien █
█ creatures skittering around underneath a surface █
█ of ice, or veer into lightly unsettling █
█ glitchtronica. "Unholy" starts around a █
█ surprisingly overt chord sequence before drifting █
█ into something more abstractly eerie; the █
█ three-part "Night of the Hunter" follows an epic █
█ dynamic flow, starting in a Zen garden on Neptune █
█ and gradually incorporating layered discordant █
█ horns and drum trance out of a movie score. By the █
█ closer of "Solar Storm" it's all coalesced into a █
█ live improvisational jam, though one that still █
█ sounds like it comes from a club somewhere far █
█ away from Earth. █
█ Planets + Persona spans the facets of Barbieri's █
█ musical sensibility and brings them together as █
█ part of a breathtaking whole: earthy and spacy, █
█ synthetic and organic, all-encompassing and █
█ intimate. In a career full of wide-ranging musical █
█ explorations, this just may be his most epic █
█ journey yet. █
▓ ▓
▒ ▒
░ 1. Solar Sea 7:31 ░
░ 2. New Found Land 7:21 ░
░ 3. Night of the Hunter (Summer - Shake 10:46 ░
░ Hands With Danger - Innocence Lost) ░
░ 4. Interstellar Medium 5:39 ░
░ 5. Unholy 9:00 ░
░ 6. Shafts of Light 6:38 ░
░ 7. Solar Storm 6:22 ░
░ 53:17 ░
░ ▒ ▒
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