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For synthesist Christopher Macdonald (aka Telomere), space music is and has always been about inspiring a transportive and meditative experience that is the product of the listener’s own imagination. To encourage this, he attempts to employ sustained and slowly-evolving melodic and harmonic motifs and sonic details that suggest an experience but leave room for interpretation. In that respect it is important the music to have a sense of flow, evolution and an unobtrusive complexity that invites repeated listening. “Supergiant”, Telomere’s fifth album and the follow-up of Telomere’s 2012 release “Lux Primordia”, is an exploration of space music using a palette of sustained tones, chords, rhythmic sequences, and non-tonal effects to impart the sensation of a journey through inner and outer space. A lot of “Supergiant”, typically comprised of many individually-recorded layers of sound built up over time to produce the final song, was performed on the Serge modular synthesizer though several self-designed and constructed modules were incorporated as well in many places throughout the recording process. These modules included a programmable quantizer, a triple bandpass filter and a MIDI-to-control-voltage converter. Next to the Serge modular, the powerful and versatile Roland Jupiter 8 is featured on many places as well along a whole range of audio effects altering the sound substantially. The seven flowing tracks making up this 57–minute space cruiser feature a nice assortment of meticulously layered and uplifting textures, gently building chorus progressions, easy going pulsing rhythms and ensemble effects all taking the listener out into the magic splendour of a vast galaxy. No hostile spheres take part in this constant evolving yet soft sparkling journey which resembles the mesmerizing sound of Michael Stearns’ classic cosmic albums “Planetary Unfolding” and “Chronos” at places. Highlights: “Nightfall”, “Winterdream”, “Sagittarius B2” and “432 Light Years”. Good job Christopher!
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| Website: http://www.evenfall.com
You can see what reviews I have done of this artist on the Telomere artist page
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