PHROZENLIGHT

Reading about this Phrozenlight release I thought it was worse. I must admit that ther isn't enough stuff to write a 100 words review about it, anyway. It's a usual space drone without a start and without an end, something that may go ahead forever without arriving anywhere, but in the same time it's not disturbing. If you are wishing to daydream about wondering in the deep space in a solitary spaceship, this is ideal. Nothing to do with crusades, battles or heroes, despite the album title, just a spacey soundscape. The fact that, as stated in the title, the second track is the first reverted and remixed can give the idea: I can't appreciate the difference. The third track is a bit different as it contains oohs and is less harmonic in terms of chords so that it's not as relaxing as the prevoius two. It seems that something is about to happen, even if nothing happens at all.

The title of the last track is very appropriate instead. "Waiting for the End" is quite a joke. Effectively after about one hour or drones this may be the listener's feeling.

Jokes apart, this is not too bad, if you want a soundtrack for daydreaming.

My feelings about this album are in contrast. Technically speakig it's a drone going nowhere, you can't know which track you are listening to as they are all almost the same. On the other hand, looking at the album and at the track titles, the artist's intention was to create a daydream soundscape. This should be the soundtrack of a sleeping person while dreaming, and in this sense he succeeds.

The influence of the early TANGERINE DREAM is huge, in particular the title track ican be seen as an expansion of some parts of ZEIT. So, to like it or not to like it? This is the problem.

Well, in my current mind state I like it but I can't suggest others to buy it. This music (better, these sounds) can help meditation, can provoke daydreaming, if you are i this kind of mood its fine. Give it a try. Set yourself into a starship travelling deep space or walking into a dark forest or whatever fantasy you like. But if you aren't in a minde state like this, the only track which can give you something is "Endless Morphing", with "ooh" sounds in the background and a resemblance of chords.

I'm in a 3 stars mood for it, but honestly it's a 2.5.

Bert Hülshoff aka Phrozenlight: Phased Emotions (2019), a one track plus an additional video clip of its radio broadcast EP, is as printed on its cover art, for free, which adds up for at least a try, in terms of market & production things couldn´t be better.

As for the music itself expect some experimental post Berlin school frenzy, sometimes dreamy others unsettling but ironically all devoid of emotions. To set its language somewhere in these electronic fields I will locate it in between the Stockhausen, Conrad Schniztler and early Tangerine Dream neighborhoods, but as ambitious as it may seem and taking into account that once the piece is recorded there are no second thoughts nor posterior arrangements nor editions, which is plaussible but not a "everything is perfect filter" for the listener, things, music wise, tend to go nowhere beyond Phrozenlight´s momentary whims, hits & misses.

So in an endless and growing discography, which will take the same time to listen, I suppose this work will suit as a nice addition to his followers´collection. As for me ,who did not went nuts with this EP and one of his other past releases, can just simply show my gratitude for its free form format , but beyond my personal benevolent feeling I will rate it for its music composition and originality (as always) and it does not raise above the 2 stars mark.

But give it a spin and maybe it could turn you on.

This is quite a decent album, despite the fact that the Phrozelight's albums don't contain anything that can be called a "chord". The first track is based on a repetitive squared wave, similar to early Tangerine Dream, but as usual it doesn't go anywhere for 17 minutes. The second track, which is effectively the second part of the first consists in other 17 minutes of electronic percussive noises on a base made of...let's call it a chord.

It's not bad, don't get me wrong. Of course it depends on your mood. If this is the stuff you are looking for, this can make your day. The problem is if you are wishig to listen to something "structured".

The third track has a nice title: "Bursting Clouds", and some of the sounds can remind to fast moving clouds, but I have the impression that Bert Hulshoff here is just having fun with his equipment. The foreground noise changes during the trac and whilt this track fades out, it's loke there's something behind,

Finally the track 4. This one starts with the thing most similar to a proper chord that I've heard in his albums up to now. Dark Nebula can't be too different, of course. This is what Bert Hulshoff does, but there something more in this track. Effectively is the kind of drones that could have been put in a Tangerine Dream album of the Pink period.

This album is above the Phrozenlight average, at least for the few I've listened to. Not a bad listen at all, but nothing I would fight for. A honest 3-stars abum, ut only for those who likes this kind of electronics.

Phrozenlight is a progressive electronics project featuring ambient and sustained electronic music. The project was created in the late 90's by Bert Hulshoff from the Netherlands. The amazing thing is that Bert has released many albums since the year 2000. In June of 2019, he released his 332nd (yes, that is correct, at least that is what is listed so far in the archives) full length album called "Soul Mantra". His music is made up of some very interesting textures that are reminiscent of and inspired by Berlin's electronic school and is often backed by sustained tones and electronic arpeggios produced by synths and computer equipment.

"Soul Mantra" is my first foray into his music, and there is enough music here to keep even the most avid listener busy for a few years at least. From what I can discern from this album alone is that the music is very dream-like and trance inducing. However, there are enough texture changes to keep things interesting as the music seems to always be moving. However, there is not a lot of change as you float through each of the 3 extra long tracks on this album but there are variations in texture, tones and patterns, enough to keep the music moving forward.

This album, as I said before, is made up of 3 very long tracks. The title track "Soul Mantra" comes first and is over 22 minutes long. Most of the first 12 minutes push forward with a steady fast moving rhythm. Quick arpeggios are backed by two repeated high pitched notes and sustained textures. Then the rhythmic pattern backs off a bit and the sustained chords and two note pitches continue, but get more free floating as it goes. By the time you reach 17 minutes, the music is more ambient with ringing tones, sustained chords and not much else. The music is very nice with dream-like textures while subdued arpeggios shimmer in the background.

"Sweet Wish" is the 2nd track and it has a run time of over 16 minutes. The track opts for no arpeggios, just sustained and pulsating notes that move slowly with very little forward movement, like a slow moving river. There are also some sparkly, almost metallic effects going on around this. The chord pattern created in the background evokes tension that finds resolve from time to time as the synths wash over you in waves ebbing and flowing. After 7 minutes, those squeaky metallic noises stop and you are left with sustained chords and ambient improvisation. At nine minutes, different sonic textures come in over the background chords.

"Spirit Mantra" closes the album with a track over 17 minutes. It probably has the least forward movement than the other two tracks, with a texture that makes it difficult to detect much change, you just know it is going on, but is sometimes almost indescernable. Twinkling notes and sounds emerge from the layers of synths. As it moves on, changes in tones can be heard making it a touch more melodic, but still very ambient. After 5 minutes, a pulsing electronic sound emerges, but since the other sounds don't really follow any rhythm, that pulsating just becomes part of the overall texture. Things intensify a bit and by 10 minutes a moving synth line creates more forward movement. This crescendos and softens, sometimes becoming the most discernable part of the soundscape. After 13 minutes, low frequencies come in drowning out the higher textures and effects and sounds emerge from those lower tones. These pitches soon start changing and then finally disappear with the track closing out with sustained ambience.

The music does remind one of earlier Tangerine Dream, but it isn't really what you could call melodic. It moves along slowly after you pass the half way mark in the first track, becoming more ambient and textural. Phrozenlight has released quite a few albums, many times at least one every two weeks or more, even though some are EPs, most of them are full length albums. The music is meant to be spatial and free flowing, improvised electronic music that represents harmonization of space and the life around us. It is very trance-inducing and is best for that kind of listening, or at least background listening. For that purpose, it works well, but to sit and listen to it for the typical entertainment factor, it isn't really that effective. Only the first track provides that, while the others have very little movement in them. Anyway, the album is well produced, and is well suited for its purpose. I highly doubt I would have the patience to try to listen to it often however, let alone explore all of his discography.

Since when I have started digging into Phrozenlight's music I had the impression of empty drones leading nowhere, like he's just spending some good time by joking with his electronic equipments. Sometimes the result is good, sometimes not.

This album, for the first time, has a meaning in the sense that the darkness of this ambient music and some of the background sounds are very in accordance with the track titles. I assume you all know the story and regardless the religious aspects I think it's one of the darkest stories ever told.

Musically it's not much different from the other rhythmless long electronic excursions of this artist, but of all the attempts to clone the Tangerine Dream's ZEIT that I have heard from him up to now, this is the most successful, probably because this time he was not really thinking to TD.

The "Friday's track" has some subtle organ and bells and should be giving the idea of the prison. An innocent condemned to a cruel death penalty waiting for his last day, laying wounded in chains. I think this track gives the idea.

Of course the Crucifiction is darker. Now there's real pain, but it also makes me think to the mystic part: the 3 hours eclipse, a portent explaining the God's anger, even though the story was already written. This track is a travel into the darkness of pain and incoming death, it doesn't contain any allusion to the promised resurrection. In some parts it reminds a bit (not too much) to the dark noisy part of Vangelis' Heaven and Hell (the Greek musician, not the books).

The third is the day of the resurrection. The Ooh's may represent the Angels, but they are too dark. What for Christians is a moment or reconnection between Men and God is here a supernatural moment which shows forces greater than Man and for this reason they are in any case perceived as dark.

Of all the ambient drones from Phrozenlight this is the most exciting that I've heard, the on on which he seems to have put some more effort than usual, probably because this kind of dark ambient is more congenial to his way of making music. In this album "outer" is not the space. It's the metaphysical world instead.

A good surprise.

With Phorzenlight there's always the risk of getting about one hour of low volume noises which don't go anywhere, and this is what I was afraid of after the previous two albums.

I have to say that even if very few things happen also on the two long tracks of this album, the sounds are not so boring and flat as in "Moon". There's the impression of a chord, some electronic "ooh" and effectively, if you are travelling alone on a starship through the deep space, this is an appropriate soundtrack.

"Helios" is everything but boring, but you have to be in the right mood. This is up to now the track closer to the Tangerine Dream of the Pink Period that this Flying Dutchman has been able to produce even being for his own admission strongly influenced by them. I survived to those rhythmless 26 minutes of keyboards and this is likely to happen again.

"Solarised" is a bit longer, clocking at 31:21. Now the basic chord is minor and the ooh voices include low pitches. For the rest it's honestly almost identical to the other track and it's strange having so few to say about a track of this length apart some "strings" appearing and disappearing suddenly in the background. In particular situations I can enjoy this music. If you are in meditation it can work fine, that's why my rating would be "barely good and absolutely non essential", but it doesn't mean an integer number of stars so I'm rounding it up to three.

The idea was not bad: Virgil's Aeneid is the only Roman epic poem and even if mimic of Homer's most famous Iliad and Odyssey it has all the right characteristics to be turned into a concept album.

That's why I find the three drones in this album very disappointing: electronic music has the power of creating mental images, it can vehicolate the author's impressions and in the worst case the author has the possibility to add noises and gimmicks able to give the listener an idea of what the music is about.

This is not the case. Bert Hulshoff has just taken three episodes or ambients from that epic poem and all the three fail in communicating the idea of the Aeneid. It's just the usual space music, unstructured and inconclusive. It's not totally bad in its own, but the shores of the Avernous river should make a bit more noise and also provide some scary sensations to who looks at them as it's the river which leads to the "aedes", the Kingdom of Deads.

The Sybil is a secondary character in the story, but is a prophetess and in the ancient world was second only to the Delphi's Oracle. It's a very good subject fro a dark ambient track but the author failed even on this subject.

"Deiphobe" can be barely distinguished from tha other two tracks and only "Aeneas and Turnus" deserves a mention as it contains some variations. The "ooh" background sounds make me think more to 2001 A Space Odyssey and would have been more appropriate if related to the Sybil. This is the only reason why I rate this album with two stars instead of one.

...but the Aeneid as concept album is a very good idea. Hopefully somebody else will sooner or later develop it.

The "ooh" sound which pervades the "Dawn of a New Year" is so spacey and reminding of Clarke's Odyssey that I think it's a dawn seen from the orbit as it gives me the impression of planets moving in slow motion. It's a pity that this artist is capable of creating a so interesting background and avoids putting anything in foreground. This is the main difference between most of his works and those of early Tangerine Dream. The second are good in creating those atmospheric soundscapes but adding also a bit of music sometimes. So even if I like being crawled by this kind of thing maybe laying down on a lawn watching the sky on a summer night, I see no reason for a track like this to last 4, 8, 16 or 32 minutes. Like a fractal, you can take any part of it and expand or contract it as much as you want. It won't change.

"Cold Night" starts better. Still no music, in the common sense, but the noises of remote thunders, rain and winds are a good intro. Unfortunately it doesn't develop enough and remains at that level for 16 minutes. I like it, I enjoy it, but it's just me. I can't suggest this thing to anybody who's looking for music. As well as you may enjoy watching a storm from the warmth of your home, behind your window while drinking hot tea, you may enjoy also this sequence of sounds.

"Dark Noon" has some keyboards. We can hear proper chords, a background and a foreground, even if far from being a melody of any kind. Dark ambient, more than spacey. At least here something happens.

"Dark Water" features some bells the thing closer to a percussion that you can find on this album (and on Phrozenlight's albums in general). An exciting track compared with the rest.

"Cold Smoke" is the less cold track of the album, even though the clean keyboard playing the usual note can be a little "icy". There's more in this part than on most of his whole huge discography. At least this track seems to go somewhere...but never arrives anywhere as usual.

So not really a bad album, but a bit more of inventive like in the last track would have made it really better. I think there are better examples of space rock or progressive electronic around so my 3 stars are rounded very up. Surely non-essential but if you are in search of this kind of music this is as good as another else. Of course between spinning this and Zeit I prefer the second by light-years.

Phrozenlight is an artist that must be taken in small doses. After his quite good debut very reminding to Tangerine Dream I have got very bored by the following two albums, in particular "Moon" so I decided to give up to him.

Looking for some ambient music I decided to give him another try and even if this "Dragons of Pern" is not too dissimilar from "Moon", there's something more inside.

It's just electronics with no rhythm, nothing that can be called "structure" and of course nothing with the sembiance of a melody, just space music. But the space is more interesting than the dead "Moon". The album title is inspired to a fantasy novel of Anne McCaffrey, that's part of a cycle (the cycle of Pern) and this probably makes the difference.

As well as I like closing my eyes and let my mind create mental images by following the music, I think that who makes this kind of music does something similar, putting into his work the sensations brought by the mental images coming in this case from the novel. So I can hear a big difference between "Dragon's Cave" and "Dragon's Fight Against Thread", as the second is surely more dramatic and full of "sensations".

It's true that if one jumps randomly from one part to the other it can appear to be all the same, but this is a kind of music who requires attention, something that has to be listened to with headphones.

This album is very close to the TD of the pink period, from which Phrozenlight admits taking inspiration and at least this time he has partially succeeded.

Having mentioned the first two tracks, let's say that "Dragon's Going Between" is different in some way from the other two tracks. The sounds are different: more squared waves and the thing most similar to a major chord that I have listened from this Dutch artist up to now.

Not a disk for everybody. It's pure space electronic ambient, but in its genre I think it deserves 3 stars.