GIRÓN

For those yet to explore Girón's deeply personal and reserved take on Berlin School atmospheres, each alters the approach. The 2014 debut `Forest' is his most melancholic and fragile work, `Stones' a year later introduced lighter and melodic touches, while 2017's `Clouds' perfectly balanced vintage and modern electronic sensibilities, and all are represented on this live outing.

Hailing from Girón's debut, `Cross the Line' is highlighted by lonely piano, reverberating hums and weeping synth cries, and fleeting spacey swirls and bubbling effects that flit around the backdrop softly call to mind Jean-Michel Jarre. A thrumming pulse and weeping Mellotron theme in `From Outer Space' turns defiant and determined, and the minimalistic and graceful `Ode to a Suiseki' aches with longing, embracing similar atmospheres to Steve Roach's 1984 classic `Structures from Silence'.

`To the Inner Temple' is dramatic with bleeding electronic melts. It's then back to Girón's first disc for `Inside the Forest', where introspective electric piano shards and the most subtle of shivering Mellotron veils that form a darkly cinematic backing rise up around an incessant programmed tick laced with unease that morphs into a pulsing, trance-like beat.

Most impressive of all, however, is album closer `Nachi', a new piece that's exclusive to this set. An eerie drone grows in stature before teeming with jangling sequencer-driven life, and it reveals a triumphant and life-affirming joy. Everything Tomas does so well is held within this one piece...

While Tomas doesn't stray too far from the original arrangements of the studio compositions, the live selections here present a very fine overview of the various moods that listeners can expect to find in his low-key approach to Berlin School/prog-electronic music. It would actually also make a perfect introduction for newcomers to his music. For now, while we wait for his next studio work, it's a welcome reminder of everything Girón does so beautifully, and progressive-electronic fans should investigate this artist immediately.

Four stars.

Opener `Stratus' is an unhurried dreamscape of serene ambient approaches, gurgling rise-and-falls, jangling sequencer beats and those beautiful weeping electronic tendrils that have become one of Girón's signature sounds. Spectral Mellotron choirs groan majestically, pulsing beats raise mysterious tension, and everything ultimately (and surprisingly!) melts into a chasm of groaning heavy unease. The meditative stillness drifting through `To the Inner Temple' is lifted by bouncing beats, spacey wavering slivers and deep bleeding electronic melts, and `Blow' holds both reflective and loved-up trilling themes (some of which might be among the most romantic to date from the artist), plus jangling crystalline chimes that are rippled with a psychedelic playfulness.

The gently melancholic `Between the Clouds' unveils lightly mournful tones full of longing and resignation over spacey droning washes that teem with the hope of new life and rebirth. `Cumulonimbus' takes a welcome up-tempo turn to give the album a quickened boost with skittering sequencer patterns and clipping trance-like dance beats around lush Jean-Michel Jarre-like pillowed touches, and the low-key and subdued closer `Through the Air' unfurls with seeping reverberations over sustaining ambient wisps and lethargic klaxon-like ebbs.

Traces of the vintage masters still remain, but Girón has forged plenty of his own identity over his three studio works to date. All the pieces on `Clouds' flow beautifully and have specific destinations so never drift aimlessly, and all the individual little ideas and sounds that pervade all of Girón's albums now seamlessly blend together into a weighty whole. Far from insubstantial airy New Age music that the placid title might suggest, `Clouds' is another sublime Berlin-School/Kosmische Musik/ambient masterwork from one of its most exciting young composers, and once again Girón's latest release can emerge as one of the standout prog-electronic works of 2017.

Four stars.

Girón's trademark weeping wisps gently pierce constant ebbing hums on perfectly titled opener `From Outer Space' that subtly draw closer around wavering other-worldly steady synths that call to mind Jean-Michel Jarre without becoming overly commercial or tepid in the way his albums often did. Delicately cinematic echoing and chiming distorted electric piano shimmers ring through the pristine and protective `Giants Causeway' as Tangerine Dream-like trickling sequencer patterns emerge, only to almost vanish completely into the distance with just a pulsing beat and approaching Mellotron caresses to return to life in the finale.

Pretty and playful submerged crystalline twitches ripple throughout `Aerolights', where soothing `Structures from Silence'- like blissful synth breezes are teeming with life and joy, and feedback-soaked guitar distortion and drowsy Pink Floyd-ian slide strains from guest musician Vako bring mystery and shade to twinkling sunlight sequencer trickles in `Quartz'. `Ode to a Suiseki' is a lulling synth drone where the electronics take on a violin-like melancholic reaching quality, and the album closes on a near seventeen-minute live performance. Not merely some bonus track (it fades in before the previous piece finishes, so perhaps giving it a proper name might have been better!), the deeply hypnotic and spacey `Live at Hackforgood 2015' offers reverberating lulling analogue synth themes full of an aching yearning, slowly introduced buoyant trickling beats and whirring groaning Mellotrons chasms.

`Stones' is a showcase of restraint and lightness of touch from a fiercely intelligent artist, achieving a perfect balance of modern and vintage sounds, refusing to simply offer `more of the same' by remaking his first work. Allowing for his influences to seep in without ever merely imitating their styles has opened Girón's music up in interesting new directions, and despite that pristine, melancholic flavour that permeated his debut being stripped back somewhat, this one still retains the fragility and darkly romantic moods, just balanced a little more with lighter colours. It's another deeply human, wounded yet impossibly hopeful musical statement, and `Stones' is one of the best electronic releases of 2015, further evidence of the unique progressive electronic/ambient voice Tom's Fern'ndez Girón is bringing into the world.

Four stars.

One thing that makes `Forest' instantly stand out is that it avoids some `cosmic' clich's that are often found on these sort of `space music' albums, even the title suggests something more grounded, which makes the music easier to connect with and relate to on an emotional and personal level. Even so, there's something just a little...`off' in parts, slightly unnerving throughout this album, and it creates a very surreal and conflicting mood! This slight edge and uncomforting quality makes Girón's music about as far from unoriginal, pretty hero worship as you can get, and the sparse low-key production gives the album a very intimate and real fragility.

Opener `Cross The Line' weaves lonely heartbreaking piano behind reverberating machine hums and weeping synth cries, sequencer patterns creeping in and constantly building in urgency. `Inside the Forest' and it's reprise later on incorporate distortion, whirring machine oscillations and a maddening ticking beat that scratches at your nerves, Tomás' delicate piano notes cutting straight to your heart. An almost darkly romantic piano melody carefully dances over drowsy fuzzy washes throughout `Deep', with pressure drop rising and falling electronic waves, and skittering loops that race headlong into pulsing dance beats. The album then unexpectedly closes with moments of real joy throughout the dreamier and carefully sweet closer "Outside the Forest" by way of playful sequencer beats, trilling synths and warm electronics washing over the listener.

Recorded live in the studio during November of 2013, limited to a now likely sold out run of 100 CD copies, `Forest's lengthy Berlin School atmospheres, relentless sequencer patterns, sombre drifting piano ambience and even brief tasteful pounding dance beats ensure a perfect balance of vintage and modern electronic styles. It's an incredibly accomplished debut album with a very distinctive sound, and with mention of an upcoming second album already in the works, the ambient/electronic genres have an exciting and original new artist to keep an eye on with Tomás Fernández Girón.

Four stars for `Forest', a deeply personal favourite album for me from 2014.