[EzExZeRo7497]

May 17th, 2014
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Flowers by Asuna
Flowers is an experimental ambient album lush with field recordings and occasional noise.
The first track, Rainy Garden, starts off very oddly. It's filled with tons of glitch and even noise - it was very disturbing in the first few minutes. I had no idea what was going on, it was almost like an epileptic seizure. All these flashes of colour hit me and I'm just... intimidated. It then continues with a warm period of acoustic guitar before moving on to a more synthetic and metallic movement. It sets off the mood quite quickly, it's like watching a garden of fake flowers and trees that aren't green. The sound of rain accompanies well too, further showing the isolation. When the rain is cleared, you see a figure of someone singing to the garden. You see that the garden became more lively and less callous, which is odd. You venture the garden to find out more about this... odd garden. Soon after the figure stopped singing, the flowers stopped dancing.

All of these tracks are named after flowers, for the most part. Since they're mainly a small component of the garden, the tracks are short. Dandelion is a little IDM track with bleeps and bloops. It doesn't do much for me because it's so minimal and stationary however. I could say the same for most of the tracks here really - they're mainly stationary and don't do much. South Orchid is a little warmer than the previous two tracks, but it doesn't do too much. While the latter half reminds me of a more mechanical Motohiro Nakashima, the track just feels artificial. Perhaps it's the intention of the track? I'm not sure.

You eventually realise that you've reached one corner of the garden and see the courtyard of a high school in the distance. Apparently they're having a march at the moment, so you sat down to watch and listen. You eventually see that the flowers are actually dancing again and it's quite pretty to watch. It's a shame that the march is so noisy though, it hurts the experience too much. You move east of the direction you initially went. The courtyard is still singing, so the flowers are still lively. You walk to the Blue Daisy, where it was moving the most. You hear students singing and you see the daisy just swaying back and forth. It's odd, but it's a wonderful little thing. There's something magical about these fake flowers having so much life... not sure what.

You see a bench and sat on it to relax. As you watch the glorious view of the synthetic garden, it started to drizzle. None of the flowers seem to move from such delicate sounds... except for one - the Forget Me Not. It's so mesmerising to see its subtle movements from the droplets on it. It creates a really thick droning sound, which envelops you. You eventually get so engrossed in the sound - you can't even see its movement anymore. It took you a few minutes to renotice the subtle movements of the flower. The sound is still as strong as it was before, though. It's so serene... it makes your sleep just wonderful. Instead of the slightly uncomfortable sight of false nature, you're comforted by the sound of rain and grey drones. Your sleep gets interrupted by the sound of other plants like the (Cut) Loqut Tree. You wake up and just follow on your merry way.

I could narrate more about the album, but it doesn't talk about how I feel about it. Most of the tracks here are very short - under 2 minutes. That's really short for ambient standards. Thus, it has the problems that most short ambient tracks have. The ideas don't stay for long enough to grow and they ultimately do nothing. It doesn't help that they aren't engaging to begin with, either. However, most of the long tracks (aside from Holland Garden) are actually quite beautiful. While I was a little unsettled by the beginning of Rainy Garden, it was still a gorgeous sight. It looked unique - the textures of metallic flowers and all are magical.

Flowers is a wonderful album conceptually. It flows well and shows the beauties and intricacies of a synthetic garden. Unfortunately, the content doesn't engage me that much. I was more fond of the actual atmosphere, rather than the music itself. The short "flower" tracks, are uneventful, unengaging or even unpleasant. The only exception would be Clover, which is oddly enough the least artificial track. Everything else didn't click with me, they just complimented the overall concept. This is basically an album that you have to listen to fully, basically. You won't get the full effect otherwise. Unfortunately, these short tracks don't keep your attention well enough for the most part. But there are some gems here, so I can't give it a low rating.

Album Highlights: Rainy Garden, Forget Me Not, Clover
Track Average Rating: 2.88/5
Overall Rating: 6/10
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Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison by Harmonium
Shoutouts to noname.

Remember that one album I had in mind after reviewing La grand-messe? This is the one I'm talking about. Harmonium is probably one of the biggest acts from Quebec. For people who don't know, Harmonium is a progressive folk band - mostly known for Si on avait besoin d'une cinquieme saison - or If We Had A Fifth Season. Which is what I'm going to review today.

Whoa, what a pretty atmosphere. The first track, Vert, translates to Spring. It really shows the beauty and fun of spring. Lush acoustic guitar, for example, signifying growth and life. It's a very serene track, the soft instruments and vocals really compliment the wonderful environment. It's so broad too, you feel like you could run around in the fields of flowers for days. While I can't say too much about the lyrics (mainly because I can't find them), the vocal delivery is generally good. Some parts do feel iffy to me, but that was because it was making it less serene and more energetic. I guess that still works as it's spring, but I'm not a fan of it.

Dixie is a lot more upbeat in comparison, with the mellotron further enhancing the mood. Unfortunately catchy songs like these don't do much for me, but it's nice for variation. I suppose that it's supposed to show the high energy summer has, and it works. But summer is my least favourite season, so it's probably fair to say that this is my least favourite track. It's quite a bright environment too, but far too bright for me. I could imagine most people who are into brighter music to really like this.

Depuis l'automne is a very long ballad, showing the melancholy and low energy of autumn. The vocals are more sombre than ever and the sky is now orange. The mellotron finally unravels the bleakness of the season - with trees nearing death and the piles of dead leaves on the ground. While it is rather depressing, it has this sense of warmth. A warmth that I could be comfortable in... almost like autumn. It's so beautiful, yet it's also very tragic. It captured the mood of autumn perfectly, and I do like autumn the most. The vocals in the last few minutes do ruin the serenity of the track, again. The mood is a little bit too powerful - I've always seen autumn to be delicate. They're being a bit too rough with the season, in my opinion.

As you could see, there's a lot of variation in this album. Of course it had to. How else could you cover all four seasons, along with an additional one? And surprisingly, most of them are structured wonderfully. What differentiates between each track would be how much I personally enjoyed them. I really can't criticise the tracks objectively, because I could see the appeal in them.

The best track, is Histoire sans paroles. It has no lyrics, just an experience through its 17 minute life. For the first three minutes, I feel like floating euphorically in this landscape. The sun is shining, everyone is moving freely and everything is peaceful. I just want to listen to that part forever, it's just so beautiful. Easily my favourite part of the album. Unfortunately it doesn't last long, but the rest of the track is still pretty interesting. It varies greatly, starting off mellow to unforgivingly cold really quick. I have to respect the fact that Harmonium is able to switch moods so well, although it does swing too violently at points. Many parts of the track are very pretty - but there are also some that are subpar. It captures many emotions - where it'd be fear, sadness or serenity. They do so quite well, some attempts better than others. But overall, fantastic. Simply fantastic.

Great album. There are some tracks that I don't enjoy as much as others, but the ones that I did enjoy are quite memorable. It's also nice that this is an album you could play in the background or attentively, so it's very accessible. I think I'll be listening to this album for a while, there are some clear gems in here. It's a bit of a shame that there's a noticeable portion that I didn't enjoy though, because I really like this album outside of that. I would love to give this a higher rating than I did, but it bogs down my enjoyment quite significantly.

In summary:

Originally Posted by Crazyjayde

Sweet spot for french music much?

Album Highlights: Vert, Depuis l'automne, Histoires sans paroles
Track Average Rating: 3.6/5
Overall Rating: 7.5/10

3 more albums left in my backlog.