ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER

If under the name AMON, Andrea MARUTTI was at his most lugubrious, menacing or glacially desolate ambiences, NEVER KNOWN shows a much more cinematically spacey and contemplative side of his musical writing. On the Edge to Forever is in the direct vein of albums like Twilight's Last Gleaming with its complex natural / elemental ambience. This is probably NEVER KNOWN's most accessible album. This is quite calm, serene and meditative but without turning cheesy or new age. The atmospheres are ritual if not mystical with a constant evocation to natural images that communicate together within an endless flux (the crystalline water, the sound of echoes among the rock). I think that this album achieves a subtle balance between celestial "ambient" like ventures and concrete micro-experimentations. Naked Time is for instance a ravishing mind-expanding piece, including sound metaphors and cosmic-synth relaxation. Secret Wealth pursues on the same compositional schema but insists on more hypnotic, haunted extended textures. Within a Memory is a fascinating, almost "aquatic" epic electronic with minimal flows, long synth waves, each musical line and motives seem to be enveloped by an angelic, sonic splendor. A very convincing atmospheric exercise and a must have for fans of eerie drones and expanded "macrocosmic" ambient waves.