John Christian: Susbarbatus

Written by Sylvain Lupari

last updated 2009-12-09 00:55 CET

John Christian is a member of the UK elecronic music band Air Sculpture and, in Susbarbatus, he presents us with a strong 2nd opus filled by heavy and lively rhythms that has nothing to do with the long atmospheric improvisations of the English trio.

Music critique

Artist: John Christian

Album: Susbarbatus

Playtime: 00:49:36
Record label: Private release
Released: 2009

planet origo rating

It is with a fleeing and flickering wave that the title track opens. A morphic synthesized veil which zigzags lazily launches Susbarbatus, where choirs and Mellotron atmospheres float in an ethereal universe before embracing a beautiful sequenced movement coated by a sweet rhythmic bass. Accented, the tempo bites ears and progresses in a captivating cloud of strata which a synth of melodic solos unfolds under a hammering sequential approach, bringing a very progressive dimension to this beautiful and catchy Berlin School piece. A beautiful opening which leads us to the dramatic and intriguing Los Ashes. Divided into two sections, Los Ashes opens with a bass taken out of hell which pulses with a hypnotic slowness in a strange catastrophic universe. The approach is dark and near Tangerine Dream soil with its flow which swims between two rhythms and its ochre strata which wrap a desert earth. At the middle course, this crossed rhythm is suspended to give way to a sound passage which scrolls by sections, accelerating constantly the pace to dive towards a heavy sequence to sharp strikes which multiply in a drummed chaos, stuffed by wrapping layers that engulf Los Ashes as waves gobble up cliffs. A superb piece of music, at once hypnotic and striking! The heavy Mellotroney drones of Brane Storm bring the album back into the atmospheric furrows of Air Sculpture, but with a darker and obscure approach. A long caustic breath, filled with sonorous strangenesses which coat a morphic piece which we listen to as we live a dream.

After this soft cerebral interlude, Weaver's Forest Of Beams falls straight in our ears as a sound sparingly that crosses both hemispheres of our speakers. To me, it's got to be the most beautiful track on Susbarbatus, because it circulates with grace on a magnificent synthscape of tearful waves and a sequencer of fractured flow broken by its echoing chords which unwind such a timeless sound spiral. Not really given rhythm, nor devoid of tempo, Weaver's Forest Of Beams enchants with its continual clashings which knock in an ambivalent structure where the musical poetry moulds to an ingenious sequencer.

Recorded at a concert at the 2006 Hampshire Jam, Mangrove spreads out by strikes of caustic layers of which the echoes get lost in an aquatic environment. A beautiful heavy and sharp sequence appears from this corrosive intro to draw an out of breathe rhythmic which runs under an exhilarating synth, from which soundforms expose a sweet ghostly madness. Another good track on this John Christian's second album! Antiquark concludes the album with a sweet minimalistic melody which navigates near the soft sequenced chords of Love on Real Train combined with the atmospheric approach of Wavelenght, both tracks by Tangerine Dream. It's impossible to not love it.

Susbarbatus is a strong electronic music album. Its only fault is to be too short, because John Christian lugs us around in a sound universe filled with hooky and catchy sequences on a highly melodious synth base and Mellotron. This is what electronic music can be, both beautiful and intrepid. Fans of Berlin School music are going to devour this one.