Aes Dana – Perimeters
Aes Dana Perimeters 2011
2. Snöflinga 3. Perimeters 4. In Between 5. Xylem 6. Resin (Overspring edit) 7. Heaven Report 8. Antimatter (Ante) 9. Antimatter (Post) 10. The Missing Words 11. Currents |
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Some time ago I got an incredibly nice gift. A surprise for me was a fresh purchase directly from Ultimae Records – PERIMETERS, an album of Aes Dana, which is available for sale from February 2011. Even before an emergence of this CD on the market, I had an opportunity to listen to some samples and even then I felt that they announced a real masterpiece. Everything good comes from Lyon, and what is more – from the hand of Vincent Villuis! A music composition, production, mastering, and finally the artwork from the cover – it is hard to believe, but each of those elements is a result of the work and a product of only one man’s imagination. A true multitalent, don’t you think so?
I look at the cover and wonder whether the music I will hear will be just as mysterious… Would I find a world after the winter, a little bit sleepy, shadowy in which there is a lot of melancholy? Or maybe my ears will hear some sounds which bring hope and joy just as the first snowdrops? Do the overexposed, blurred, hazy trees and landscapes hide a secret? I conjecture unnecessary – it is better to be opened to enjoy the sounds served by a French genius. I like the album from the first seconds. Slowly I enjoyed a beautiful melody, which a violin led, trying not to lose any sound, which sprang from the wooden instrument. The track called ANTHRAZIT would not have such overtones, if Christoph Berg (known as Field Rotation) did not take part in it and show off his violin skills. In my case, this classical instrument always puts me in a melting mood, nostalgia, it tells a sad story, and while listening to it, my eyes become vitreous from the flowing tears. In addition, looking at the cover page, where we can find an image corresponding with the first track (ears of the rye), I have in my mind a famous scene from the movie ‘Gladiator’, in which the main character being on his deathbed, returns in his thoughts to the beloved places, walking in his imagination through fields full of scented corn, maturing in the full sun. Suddenly, some delicate snowflakes settle down on our hair, this sort of snow appears and disappears at once only in early spring. The track SNOFLINGA starting with an orchestral insertion is specially dedicated to Magnus Birgerssona (Solar Fields, H.U.V.A Network). PERIMETERS is exactly what I have been waiting for! Vincent Villuis, a master of building emotions, tension, once again shows me that he is also a surgeon performing an operation on my open mind, absorbing his music like a sponge. He plays with my imagination – I fall asleep for a while (but it is a very exciting dream!), and after a few seconds Vincent prepares a powerful kick of energy for me. The grains of a tree from the cover, proving that time also leaves behind a visible sign, remind me of a fingerprint – is it the fingerprint, which Aes Dana leaves in our mind? He gets into our subconsciousness by using the ambiguous music (soft and strong at the same time), by using multiple dimensions, depths and by a great mastering, a technique that many psychill artists could envy him.
Wandering through one of the mountain trails, a cold spring rain falls on me, from which I hide in a small, wooden cottage abandoned sinse a very long time and there I experience a real catharsis. I melt in the ether and I have the strongest aesthetic and spiritual feelings so far. That is IN BETWEEN which is honey for my soul, and its progressive sound drills a hole in my stomach, and at times appearing vocal, calling mysteriously, invites some spirits of the ancestors to play a ritual dance of generations. I would be happy to hear this track in an old Gothic chapel or church and I would check how it interacts with the echo and old walls, which also conceal some secrets. XYLEM appears so that we could calm down, be more quiet, soothe our senses. I can see how the plants are slowly waking up from the winter sleep, releasing buds – the spring is coming, and with it a breath of freshness, new quality. In the track RESIN, dedicated to the artist Massimo Terranova, we can hear some busy bees, a happy bumblebee (straight from the cover), and the progressive sounds evoke the old tracks of Aes Dana, such as: DUSTS, IRIS, etc. In the next track (HEAVEN REPORT) there is also current the atmosphere straight from some older discs of Vincent. This is my next favourite of this album – it is exactly as I like the most. The fiery track, a little bit dark, with a large dose of energy and, paradoxically, subtle power. ANTIMATTER would rather suit me as an intro, and indeed a prefix ANTE clearly indicates the thing which is ‘before’. I understand that after the incredible track HEAVEN REPORT it is useful to breathe for a moment and collect a bit of thoughts, but listening to ANTIMATTER I feel a slight hunger, because this is not what I have expected at this time. I have an impression that this track is just a break (I prefer not to use the term ‘clogging’). Finally! ANTIMATTER (POST) and THE MISSING WORDS are catching up and again, after a lethargic moment my stamina is back but what a pity that for so short time. I have already felt in the air the end of this album, coming along with the track called CURRENTS.
Analyzing PERIMETERS, it seems that each subsequent track is getting better and reaches its climax in the seventh position of the album, ie in the track HEAVEN REPORT. I was quite disappointed with the final part of the record – I think the Aes Dana, whose music comes full circle wide and covers many species including downtempo, IDM, and even progressive and morning trance, could surprise us with something else, fresh in the last part of PERIMETERS. Despite some minor comments and words of a constructive criticism, the work of Vincent Villuis from the year 2011 without hesitation I can include to the most interesting psychill albums of the last few years. In it there is a mystery, darkness overcoming by some soft rays of the sun, an extremely rich imagination, the artist’s workshop and a huge power of attraction, which appears only in the case of the most unique albums, remembered for years.
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9 / 10
Kasia