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H.U.V.A Network - Ephemeris
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Melancholyman
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Mar 17, 2009 00:13:26
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H.U.V.A Network
Ephemeris
Ultimae Records
2009
Tracklist:
1 Dissolving Time (6:39)
2 .Blank (8:48)
3 Orientations Part 1 (Above Towns Edit) (9:07)
4 Orientations Part 2 (Ephemeride 15.43°) (7:47)
5 Orientations Part 3 (Uncertainty Principle) (8:44)
6 Cobalt (6:42)
7 Fade Away (6:18)
8 Diagrams (7:28)
9 Something Heavens (6:42)
10 Saturday Barbecue With New Neighbours (2:43)[/b]
Review:
Ephemeris, the second installment of duo Vincent Villuis and Magnus Birgersson aka H.U.V.A Network (H.U.V.A stands for Humans Under Visual Atmospheres). The first album Distances was a great album, combining Aes Danas hypnotic slow morning trance with Solar Fields clever use of tickling sounds. To me the first album has some too many tracks that were a little bight too uptempo, so I had a hard time appreciating it to the fullest.
Ephemeris builds on the same formula but it feels more mature, more mellow and made with more confidence. The opening track Dissolving Time is towards you're typical Aes Dana track, and with not so much going on really except the heavy bassline rolling you forward, the hypnotic element is, as it is on the whole album present here, on good and bad. Either you like it or you don't. I for one is appreciating it much more than I did on the last album. But moving on to the next track Blank things start directly to get more interesting, with acoustic elements that to my ear must be an element contributed by Magnus. The Aes Dana and Solar Fields elements really seem to fit together in a stronger symbiosis on Ephemeris than on Distances. It is important to notice that H.U.V.A Network has always been towards the more progressive side of things, depth with multi layers is not what the artists clearly are after. It is a hypnotic ride, with tickling sounds.
Orientations (above towns edit) has great elements in it making you feel going backwards in time, you'll know what I mean when you hear it. This track becomes great towards the middle and end where alienatic sounds, and lovely use of vocals are mixed together with the lovely bassline, just to end in a very desolate feeling, but you are quickly grabbed up by some high frequency comforting sounds into Orientations Part 2, which starts off very slow letting you breath and relax for a while until about half the tracklength when things start to spice up again. This change of pace is good and keep the listener interested and curious with expectations of what is next to come. Ephemeris is clearly flirting with ”true” beatless ambient here, and it's very nice to have that element. We move on to Orientations Part 3 which features a bassline that very much resembles the beating of a heart, and it's really hard not to just let yourself fade away.
Cobalt is obviously the most uptempo track on this album. And it's really awesome. It for some reason reminds me of some of Bluetech's works. It's really uplifting and fresh and sounds to me like a track where Vincent and Magnus just nailed it, the perfect mix between the two. It is a cocky track, but so masterfully produced it won't fall short. I'd love to hear more of this type of sound from either H.U.V.A Network, Aes Dana or Solar Field in the future. Fade Away continuous in the same direction with a faster bassline, and transcending into Diagrams that has some of the underlying elements of the previous track making it a sister track.
The track Something Heavens is great at first, reallly lovely, and you instantly get the feel as it is building up for something, a climax a burst of energy. The problem is that it never occurs, having expected this climax and being let down makes it really sadly fall short. It's a great song it's just the problem of giving expectations of something and not fulfilling those makes it as the whole track is ruined. To make a stupid comparison, think of when you are really hungry and acing for a big fat juicy pizza. You order it with extra bernaise and all that, it tastes lovely at start then you become full of it and you feel the pizza wasn't even tasty to start with. This happens at approx 4.25, something starts then it reaches a certain level, I think it's going to go higher and higher but it just stops and stays there.
A great album indeed, though I find myself sometimes while listening, getting tired of a some kind of repetitve feel. Highly subjective of course (as the whole review). The whole album has a melancholic touch to it, though still while maintaining a sense of beautifully crafted soundscapes, and a sense of hope and progress towards something good and great. All in all a great album, if you like Aes Dana , Solar Fields, Ultimae music in general or even just psychedelic downtempo in general you won't go wrong with this release. And it's also worth taking into account that music has it's own purposes for different situations. The appreciation of an album lies in what mood you are and if that mood fits the music. I can imagine that this album is lovely when in a deep meditative state, that's where it's really going to shine. Also great music takes time to digest.
 
http://thenoseisperpendicular.blogspot.com/ |
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le barde
Electrypnose
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Posted : Mar 18, 2009 13:58
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Got to get my hands on this, i'm a big fan of their first release. Good news they have done a new one.
Thanks for the review.
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so many knobs - so little time |
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Bodhisattva
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Mar 18, 2009 16:56
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Bodhisattva
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Mar 18, 2009 17:44
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H.U.V.A Network - [ Ephemeris ]
Ultimae records - March 2009
1) Dissolving Time
2) Blank
3) Orientations ( Above Towns Edit )
4) Orientations part 2 ( Ephemeride 15.43° )
5) Orientations part 3 ( Uncertainty Principle )
6) Cobalt
7) Fade Away
8)Diagrams
9) Something Heavens
10) Saturday Barbecue with New Neighbours
Since I got my copy from Ultimae today and I had some spare time, I listened to [ Ephemeris ] a few times and it inspired me
to write a few words. so here we go...
The brilliant half Swedish half French duo is back with a stunning formulated album.
This time with more dynamic and crystallized compositions they are pushing the boundaries once again.
The pair of sound architects, Magnus Birgersson ( Solar fields ) and Vincent Villuis ( Aes Dana ) created 10 new perfectly sculpted and engineered gems made of glitchy hazy trip-hop,glowing soulful sort of an aurora borealis atmospheric powerful ambient,dark psychedelic electronica with melancholic vibes yet with sparks of hope and gleaming renewed polished Progressive morning trance.
in a addition to their wonderful composing and arrangement abilities the two dream weavers are using their excellent production skills as another instrument for intensifying the emotions and ambience that they masterfully poured into their creation,and as always from the Ultimae team and artists the combination between beautiful unique music and high quality production creates a big boost for the imagination and for the soul as well.
already in their excellent first album [ Distances ] it's very possible to hear the great potential in the collaboration between these two talented musicians and that they are here for exploring new directions.
[ Ephemeris ] is a multilayered album with perfectly realized ideas.
strong energetic bass lines,atmospheric moving melodies,sophisticated,tight and intense beats and rhythms and crispy fat sounds are the fibers of this album.
beautiful illuminated spacey colorful textures are blending with solid,more rough and electrifying textures and enchanted hypnotic ones are there as well,lurking mysteriously,revealing themselves from time to time falling from above or bursting from within,and all of this is manipulated by Magnus and Vincent in a very smart way, creating wonderful luminous soundscapes with emotional and psychedelic depths,so [ Ephemeris ] acts like a sequel in an epic story and the name - H.U.V.A Network ( Humans Under Visual Atmospheres ) really lives up to it's meaning.
the artwork : all the Ultimae releases have a unique cover art and they are also great looking from inside,most of them arrive with a 16 pages booklet that contains beautiful photographic material and great graphic designs,and already from looking at the artwork it's possible to receive some of the album's moods and atmospheres.the inside outside cover art and booklet artwork of [ Ephemeris ] is absolutely mesmerizing.it's very nice when a record label puts so much effort in the artwork as well as in the music
and this is something that I really appreciate cause it makes the whole listening experience even more unique and enjoyable.
so after a great last year and almost 9 years of releasing great music made by great artists the Ultimae label opened the new year with" Movements " which is the astonishing sixth studio album of the excellent very talented musician and sound designer Solar Fields.
and now another amazing release - [ Ephemeris ] which is the outcome of the connection between two special sounds and styles,the unique Aes Dana sound and style and the unique Solar Fields sound an style, and that mixture is extraordinary !
http://www.ultimae.com/en/releases/339/index.html
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Tula
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Posted : Mar 19, 2009 13:44
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MorNinG MaGiC
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Posted : Mar 20, 2009 03:25
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Trax 9 does it for me....! I cant get enough of it...! Thank you Vince for this magical journey again  ..!
Ultimae for everrrrrrrr.....!
boOm..!
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Meta-Morphosis
IsraTrance Senior Member
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Posted : Mar 20, 2009 17:23
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1st 5 tracks are great, rest is not my taste..wont say its a masterpiece but good nonetheless
“What we need is the development of the Inner Spiritual man, the unique individual, whose treasure is hidden in the symbols of our mythological tradition and in man’s unconscious psych.” - CJ Jung |
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Bodhisattva
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Mar 20, 2009 17:40
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Quote:
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On 2009-03-20 17:23, LSD-25 wrote:
1st 5 tracks are great, rest is not my taste..wont say its a masterpiece but good nonetheless
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really ? even " Something Heavens " is not your taste ?
anyway,I really love all the tracks,and in my opinion it's a masterpiece.
but of course it's pointless to argue on taste.  |
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Meta-Morphosis
IsraTrance Senior Member
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Posted : Mar 21, 2009 05:06
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Didnt fancy the surprising guitar bit to be honest in "somethings heavens" and the tracks tempo. slow ..progressive..upp down..down.
Yeah like you said..taste.
“What we need is the development of the Inner Spiritual man, the unique individual, whose treasure is hidden in the symbols of our mythological tradition and in man’s unconscious psych.” - CJ Jung |
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le barde
Electrypnose
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Posted : Apr 28, 2009 20:11
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Brilliant !! Love it.
Liking pretty much also that new progressive touch they have used in here.
It just takes me to their journey. Musically it's beautiful.
Thumbs up for these 2 guys.
Has been playing for the whole afternoon today, i think it will be something i'll listen for long time, like their first album.
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so many knobs - so little time |
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mk47
Inactive User
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Posted : Apr 30, 2009 08:58
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Very good , expected nothing less either .. i like the proggy bits too , the guitar thing in something heavens just doesn't feel right , but lovely music apart form that little bit .
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le barde
Electrypnose
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Posted : May 1, 2009 20:37
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Do you guys mean that more "rock music" part at the end of that track ? ... Sounds just great to me, with a good and well dosed fuzz on some tone. Unexpected when you hear the rest of the track, but that does it very well for me.
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so many knobs - so little time |
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sidra
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : May 11, 2009 19:06
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I love this release, I actually think I enjoy it more than movements. I think that the guitar fits nicely with the whole tone of the album. |
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MorNinG MaGiC
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Posted : May 12, 2009 05:33
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Quote:
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On 2009-05-01 20:37, le barde wrote:
Do you guys mean that more "rock music" part at the end of that track ? ... Sounds just great to me, with a good and well dosed fuzz on some tone. Unexpected when you hear the rest of the track, but that does it very well for me.
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+1....!
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Nathan
IsraTrance Senior Member
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Posted : May 12, 2009 23:57
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