QUINOA

After more than a decade of original and sometimes (un)original soundtracks, Quinoa is just "music" which doesn't need to comment a movie.

Voxel Ux, despite being very newage oriented, has still a vibe reminding in some ways of the Virgin period. The track is made of different "movements", well tied together but that likely are a fusion of different shorter things. Not a problem, it's a good track, in particular the last part even if the electronic drums sound a bit dated.

Then there's the 28 minutes long omonymous suite: Quinoa. I don't know why a commestible plant has been chosen for the album title, but it doesn't make me feel sick. It's just a title.

It's a typical TD track, but as sometimes happen, parts of it aren't too different from what artists like Vangelis, Peter Bardens and even Alan Parsons were doing in these years. I'm quite sure that the sax is a synth. I think that a real sax would have been better. Anyway, some of the sounds used are very interesting. Don't forget that 25 years ago the sounds technology was different. Today everybody can produce that kound of sounds using just a laptop, but actually it was very different. The "strings" section is melancholic, but it's also spacey. I can think to images from Hubble or something like Earth filmed by the ISS...this kind of things. The uptime part that follows sounds like it was recorded in the 80s, but it's enjoyable even if not very original. At least it features the long repetition which were a trademark of the Virgin period.

At about minute 20 starts a slow and melancholic part that may fit well in a movie soundtrack. I suspect that this material might have been composed/recorded in the 80s and released a decade after. At minute 23:30 a disco 4/4 rhythm is the base for a melody with a middle-eastern feeling. The fact that the percussion slow down then restart, while the signature remains on 4/4 makes me think to Senmuth. Major chords with no percussion close the track.

The third and last track, "Lhasa", which is the capital of Tibet, starts in an evocative way. It's between Lucia Hwong's and Mark Isham's Tibets. The chords progression is interesting while the simil-organ sound moves slightly from a Vangelis mood to light dissonances and back. Having recorded a huge number of movie soundtracks aìhas left its sign, but this also means that they are able to raise mental images. Apart of this, Lhasa is an excellent track which also contains shadows of the past. The dissonant passages aren't too far (forgive my heresy) to those of Zeit.

So, free from the constraints of images to comment, this is a proper Tangerine Dream album, probably because the three tracks weren't actually written with the intention of making them on an official release.