Monday 29 August 2011

Robert Schroeder - Cream (2010)




How should one describe a music such as CREAM ?
CREAM one must simply have heard and experience. The fact that on a CD with the title CREAM, nothing else should have to be expected then the absolute CREAM of Electronic Music, that even the artist himself in such a way designates his new and thus 21st solo work. Of course the 6 titles of the 68 minutes long CD are designated enough as CREAM de la CREAM of the EM, particularly because Robert concentrated contentwise here on traditionally long EM tracks, and this produced also in the style of the typical EM with strong influences of the so called Berlin School style.

Naturally, after over 30 years experience Robert knows the tools of the goose skin producing elements and Schroeder has used the trick box of his experiences. He has produced an album that offers very positive surprises by analogue sequences, sound surfaces, harmonies, melodies and emotions. Finally an album with long tracks between 8 and 17 minutes. The feeling of the good old genuine Electronic Music becomes fully effective here.
CREAM is truly EM, as we expect and like, well balanced first-class EM with varies passages, surprised atmospheres, traditional and modern electronic sounds and music with goose skin effect.

Sylvain Lupari of âgutsofdarkness.comâ has found the right words to describe the music of this wonderful album:

Hummmâ¦! Robert Schroeder's musical adventures are rich, both in tones and varied rhythms where the funky flirts with the groovy on heavy percussions surrounded of a universe full of synths with rich tones. A mixture of kinds, rich and smooth as the cream de la Cream; the 22nd solo album of the mythical German synthesist. An at once heavy and limpid album, so much notes and details are finely chiseled on sweet and stormy rhythms. Tempos broken, interrupted and wrapped by synths which separate their pads to mold choirs, mists and angelic breezes among voices, vocoders and murmurs of all genres. An album with mesmerizing intros and varied rhythms, hammered by heavy electronic percussions, as bongo and conga style. In brief a powerful album with ambivalent rhythms which cross periods and musical styles of Schroeder, and this since "Paradise" in 1983.

Arpeggios skip awkwardly on "Magnetics" opening. They espouse a delicate line of bass which molds a discreet funky rhythm on fine percussions, while beautiful mellotron pads float slightly above this atmosphere sieved by cosmic sound effects. A little as everywhere on Cream, Magnetics pours and moves in rich and unctuous sound cream where various instrumentations come to enrich its minimalist and hypnotic structures. Synths flow with abundance and nuance there, mixing skillfully the sweet vocalizes, melodious solos and ethereal pads which glance through a soft rhythm sometimes shaken by scattered percussion strikes and keyboard keys which gossip as a galactic duck.

"Groove Electronically" is a very beautiful track with its notes of piano which are spreading in a cosmic ambiance where whispers, very plaintive synths and sound effects hatch this strange ethereal intro. Hesitant pulsations light finely the tempo, trampling on the romantic series of these minimalist piano notes. Percussions tumble down and increase the rhythm of a notch. But Groove Electronically remains secretly delicious in spite of this full array of percussions and tones with colorful forms which break out on a constantly evolving tempo of which cadenced contrasts can be hear under strata of a shrillness and spectral synth, percussions rolls, hatched keyboard keys and a tempo which gallops under undulations of a wandering synth such as crystalline prisms which hoot between brief and delicious solos. A tempo rich in tone which dies away in the notes of this piano so delicious even if minimalist. The world of Schroeder is complex and harmonious. On each of Cream tracks, the German synthesist sprinkles quantity of instruments which kick away thick clouds of tones as intriguing as attractive.

So "The Zong" starts with heavy metallic sounds, as monsters robots of The War of Worlds. Percussions unfurl with strength, but remain indecisive, while others more nuanced forge a soft rhythm livened up by a fine bass pulsation and encircled by a synth with extraterrestrial waves which hoot at once pleasant and childish laments. The rhythm became heavier and more intense; The Zong evolves in an ambiance of the carnival with a mi funky and mi groovy tempo which zigzags on circular keyboards keys and among glaucous pulsations. A world of strongly diversified rhythm which is wrapped by a synth with foggy pads and wandering choirs.

"Funky Spacetrip" is very representative of its title; a big cosmic funk with vocoder, strong percussions and a tempo vaguely wavy accompanied by a magnificent synth whose lines are subdividing to create a rich atmosphere where solos go alongside ethereal pads. A very rich track which is near "Groove Electronically" structures.

Languishing and sensual, "Foaming Waves" is simply captivating with its soft rhythmic which flows as a graceful exotic dance under soft foggy pads. Suggestive and daring, Foaming Waves embraces almost the textures of an electronic and cosmic blues, on a cadence which increases gradually the pace with its subdivided chords beneath a synth with delicious laments. A great track from which the musical intensity keeps increasing, bringing us near "Paradise" and "Time Waves" era with smooth synth solos which flow under pulsations of an enticing bass line.

Hesitating piano notes, sensual murmurs and sensual pulsations open "Simply Cream". Bongo percussions unfurl on a languorous rhythm, between funk and groovy, coated by magnificent strata of a foggy mellotron. The synth there is suave, the rhythm suggestive and keyboards draw fine hatched lines, crowning a catchy synth melody and Simply Cream disentangles such a sensual hymn in a shape of musical retrospective of the first 5 tracks of Cream.

Rich, Cream is! Rich in sounds and tones of any kinds and in diversified rhythms, Robert Schroeder handles his synths with an incredible address and makes us discover a rich sound fauna where reliefs are as much feel as hear. A pure marvel where we are riveted to our loudspeakers so much the rhythms, atmospheres and ambiances are finely cut and returned to us with a surgical precision. A beautiful, rich and unctuous cream which dilutes very well in the universe of dreams where the music of the 80âs, with the technology and the sonorities of today, floods our ears with soft, suave and stormy rhythms unique to Robert Schroeder's world.

Written by Sylvain Lupari gutsofdarkness.com & synth&sequences.com MP3 Robert Schroeder - Cream - Download Music



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