Lovethechaos, 2010
Strange2 is a project of David Jornet from Barcelona that dates back to 1980. Living now in Paris, a lot has changed in his musical taste, and Ciclos is a portrait of those changes. The most obvious focus of this work are the melodies and well-crafted atmospheres. I quite like the melodies and the mighty, clean textures he uses throughout the entire album—no tension whatsoever. Some of the tunes are somehow Industrial but still very much IDM—definitely not abstract and not really experimental in the sense of strange effects and weird textures. The album prefers to follow a straight-forward path that can be easily digested by most of the electronic music fans out there.
The cover art is very nice, and I think it captures the whole feeling of the album. Clues about the structure and composition of the entire album are on the cover and I have to congratulate the cover artist for that.
I have to point out the lovely melodies and the fine fluidity of the tunes as well as the entire album sequence. It flows through beautifully, playing around with chords, soundscape effects, and beautiful synth work, transporting the listener to different places, but never describing the same town. He never takes unrelated turns.
I remember being in a situation where I wanted to move away from my safe cocoon but could never find the strength to do so. Or maybe, subconsciously, I just didn’t want to anyway. The spoken word in the track “Arte y espectador” is an extract from Marcel Duchamp’s statement about the creative process of the artist, and I think that is a very nice touch. The track’s composition, as well, captures the nature of the context of the entire text and, as an artist, I was quite moved by the way he put things together here, on the border of dark ambient, but never too deep into it.
This album should be listened to as the background to an emotional and deep conversation with one’s self on those days you don’t want to think about futile subjects, but you just want to have a deep dive into the realms of your subconscious and find out what’s going on in your head. The tracks are full of suspense, but never too dark—always in the middle, down to the melodies contrasting the ambience of the dark nature of the soundscape’s textures.
Sometimes I think I should go deep inside a situation and throw myself into it, but I quickly decide to play it safe and get back to my (un)comfortable shack. That confuses me from time to time. That feeling is actually captured at some point in this album, and I totally dig that. Confusion is part of modern human nature and it will be there for sometime. At the end of the day, it’s a very digestible and enjoyable album, made to be listened to with someone with whom you are keen to have a long talk about yourself, over some wine and candle light, on the floor of your living room, after a long day at work.