FOREST

How fitting that on the day that the world lost Tangerine Dream's electronic music pioneer Edgar Froese I should be reviewing an album and artist that takes his defining styles and sounds of electronic/Berlin School music and offers his own unique, exciting and very personal take on the same traditions in a way that Froese would no doubt have been immensely proud of. Spain's Tomás Fernández Girón's debut album `Forest' from 2014 may share the same kind exploratory ambience and space music adventurousness as the early Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Klaus Schulze and Ashra works, but there's a darker, more melancholic and deeply human sound drifting through this work, especially due to many sparse moments of despondent piano throughout the electronic ambient soundscapes.

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.