SYNOPSIS: OUTLAND

Another fairly disappointing and boring ambient release from Senmuth. While even some of Senmuth's latter work has proven to be quite strong; even great at times, the prolific Russian composer seems to have fallen into a rut of releasing the same album over and over again, albeit with different artwork and under new titles. While the music here is technically new, it is by no means fresh for Senmuth. Anyone who has heard one of Senmuth's more ambient electronic albums will see virtually no exception from formula here. Of course, the album is graced with enough strengths to save it from being infamous, but as it stands, this feels like another harmless ambient album to me.

The formula is generally as follows: drawn out, quiet soundscapes, shallow electronic beats, and the constant dynamic between these two. Due to the fact that all of this music is composed using a computer and there is no real sound here, things sound quite lifeless, even as electronic music goes. With albums like the more recent 'Expanding Architecture', Senmuth really manages to make a spacey journey that's worth going back to multiple times. Here, as each track passes, one may struggle to remember even one aspect of the music.

Of course, Senmuth's prolific work has given him quite some experience, and that does bolster what would otherwise be a possibly worthless album quite a bit; namely, his arrangements of sound. While the sounds here aren't excellent by any account, the more intricate sections of the music can have multiple things going on in the music that warrant a little extra focus. The song that does this best is 'Жизнь вне Жизни', which gets a little extra caffeine than the rest of the songs on 'Synopsis: Outland' and manages to provide a somewhat more engaging experience, although it still only passes by as being decent.

Certainly one of the weakest experiences I have had with Senmuth yet, although it may be in large part due to my existing familiarity with this side of the project.

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.