And so Ici d’ailleurs continue their Mind Travel series with ‘Drachen’ (‘Dragons’ in German’). It’s an album which, although based around narrative, is equally about evoking sensation and finds Delplanque departing from his usually meticulous compositional and recording practices to produce a work that’s spontaneous and direct.
The pieces combine menace with majesty. Deep, ominous sonic expanses unfurl a layer at a time, uncoiling and recoiling in slow, deliberate undulations.
Slow, harmonic guitars reminiscent of Earth’s more recent work, but stripped back to its absolute minimum and slowed to a crawl, evokes ancient folk music from within the densest of medieval forests, but strewn with otherworldly scrapes of electronic treble drift toward distant thunder and a gathering storm.
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Part 5 is particularly hypnotic, while the last of the seven parts of ‘Drachen’ is immense, a vast, sonorous drone rippling with quaint, clattering beats which drag the listener down into the belly of the beast
The eighth track, ‘Gandefabou’ breaks from the seven-part ‘Drachen’ suite and marks something of a departure. Chords resonate back through the centuries, rolling back oriental mystical evocations to lead the way toward the light.
Mathias Delplanque Online
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