SYNOPSIS: OUTLAND

Said so, the album is opened by a short ambient track (Birth) that can be intended as an intro to "Becoming" that's a good electronic track which doesn't contain the useless changes of pitch which sometimes affect the Senmuth's songs. It's rhythmic and the contribution of ethnic sounds is not as invasive as usual. There's just a bit of sitar, and the final effect is not too far from some Edgar Froese's solo outputs with orchestral percussion accents like sometimes in Vangelis. A good start, maybe a bit too long.

We then proceed with an electronic rhythm ("Transition") given by a bass sequence and few percussions. Just a hint of melody comes later, brought in by what seems a sitar but is probably a guitar effect. A bit dark and hypnotic track.

"Period of Awareness" follows gaplessly. Just a sequence of low pitched chords with percussions becoming heavier in crescendo, but it's just an illusion: nothing happens really. I think this is the awareness of the title...this track is effectively a bit boring.

"Confusion" starts at low volume with just some percussions then it restarts with the same tempo of the previous track, but this time there's a melody. A good choice of sounds unfortunately jeopardized by some changes in pitch absolutely non necessary in my opinion. However this is not a bad track.

"Conversion" contains good passages together with the pitch changes thing. The ethnic part is here played by a totally electronic sound instead of the usual sitars and similar.

"Merger" is similar to something that I have already heard, but this is the 70th Senmuth's album that I review so I think it's normal. It's a kind of track that in general I like, but it doesn't bring anything new. There are whole albums made of this stuff, even the excellent "Internal Images".

I consider "Life Outside of Life" the album's highlight. Even if not too different from the rest has sounds and sequences that remind me to the Tangerine Dream of the late 70s. For fans of Ricochet and Rubycon.

Finally, "Return" is a short closer totally ambient. A very low volume keyboard soundscape of spacey sounds which fades into silence.

The album has some good moments, but I wouldn't suggest it as one to start with this artist (I refer to Senmuth as a person, but it's just the project's name, Valery Av is the guy behind it).

It's not totally good but I don't think that rounding up the rating to three stars is a scandal.

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