Remy – Sense

4 reviews for Remy – Sense

1. 

   Sylvain Lupari / Canada – 2022-11-22

   I always loved Remys music. His long exploratory titles with constant changes of directions in a Schulze way hooked me at first hearing. Warned about a different style I was expecting this new Remy with anxiety.

   Being starts well. The environment is intimate. A soft piano and a cello court themselves on a melodramatic screen. A little like film credits, the notes run with beauty and are based in a beautiful dark melody.
   Destination is, indeed, quite different. Heavy atmospheric winds are surrounding by sounds effects with a voice that seems to emerge from a bad dream. Feedbacks are dancing on bass line sequence in the Pink Floyd On the Run moods. This whole mess is getting together to form a funky bass beat that turns into a zombie walk trance. Heavy synths circulate in increasingly agitated spheres, with loud choirs. The beat becomes more dynamic when synths fill up the air with long striking solos. A wonderful unusual piece of music. Really, it has to be listened entirety before making up your mind. An intense track.
   Behaviour is smoother. An atmospheric track with heavy synth pads and a thin sequence line that recall Mr Schulze sensuous line on Body Love.
   Maze and Mortality are among the best musical titles I have listening this year. On a wonderful cello sound, Mattie explains the pressure and the fear of being trapped in a Maze. The music is superb and reflects to perfection the anguishes of being trapped in corridors without ends. The music is realistic that we feel we are there, we feel these corridors. The atmosphere is stressing and intriguing as a great musical score. Then everything bursts into crazy and running beats. The drum machine runs like hell on the cello strings that metamorphose itself into a wild violin. The beat goes on with a wonderful bass and other great synths solos. An amazing piece of music.
   Mortality is my favorite track on Sense. Its a long musical corridor with soft tints and softer discrete choirs. The line. Ohwhat a wonder. A soft wonderful sequence line ( la Schulze) draws a perfect ambiance that gains gentle rhythms witch progress on vaporous percussions. A great track for every Schulze lovers in us.
   Dj vu closed Sense is a title without rhythm which bores on immense synthetic layers and the semi-human semi-drod voice of Mattie. An intriguing title that would fit perfectly on Bowies Low musical adventures.

   Sense might be different from the usual music of Remy, but it doesnt mean that it might not be good as good as what we are use too. Not at all.
   Its an unusual musical journey, witch I could agree, with intense and very creative parts. I like it a lot. It needs more than one listening, but each time your ears come across this opus, the more you like it. Isnt not the sign of a great work? Isnt not the sign of something brilliant?

   2006. Sylvain Lupari / Canada

2. 

   Artemi Pugachov / Encyclopedia of Electronic Music – 2022-11-22

   Dark pads and piano playing start the first track Being”. Quite dramatic stuff and different for Remy. Subtle synth flashes glow from beneath

3. 

   Phil Derby / Electroambient Space – 2022-11-22

   Since the first time I heard Remys Sense, I have been trying to figure out what to make of it. In the past, it was the sound of Remys music that drew the comparisons to Klaus Schulze.
   On Sense, Remy is Schulze-like for the boldness of the undertaking, the uncompromising nature of it.

   The difference in approach is clear from the beginning of the first track, Being”. Like Klaus

4. 

   Glenn Folkvord – 2022-11-22

   The Netherlands has a thriving electronic music scene, it seems; Remy is one of the many Dutch artists with a growing catalogue, while also running his EM dedicated record label, AKH Records. Sense, released in 2006, is his latest album so far, with 5 other albums in his personal catalogue.
   This is the first album by Remy I have heard, so I was not sure what to expect. As it turns out, the album is largely symphonic and wide, with 6 relatively long tracks and a dramatic, dark atmosphere in many of the tracks.

   Destination is especially sinister with some backwards string/pad sounds creating an almost gothic feeling. The addition of male singing/chanting/poetry works well, as does the weird sound effects (think VCS3 brrrps and screaming analogue synths), and in the latter half a sequencer kicks in to give the track more dynamics. This track is perhaps the highlight of the album, as it offers two halves that are different in structure and instrumentation, but still compliment each other and having that cool horror movie feel to then. The soundtrack to a Jack the Ripper Victorian movie?
   The musical darkness continues in Behavior, which in spite of it’s angelic synthesizer choirs creates a Goblin-like anticipation – where are the zombies?
   More of the same, but in a grander scale, can be found in Mortality, where a sequencer pattern and various electronic drumming/percussion (of which some sound almost distorted) adds an eerie, transparent feeling of running, flying or falling.
   Maze is a weaker track; a male voice reads poetry backed by 1980s synth bass and string sounds, but it sounds too much like a specific 80s Software track, and that is not a good thing. As it’s another long track, it develops into something completely different around the 10 minute mark, but the somewhat fake sounding strings continue and the voice is now replaced by a poppy drum pattern, which, as it breaks up the mood, is a welcome addition but does not elevate the track itself. The last 4 minutes or so is more fun; the funky drums continue (and are added to) and two synth leads are introduced, sounding like they would have worked great in a live situation. Let’s say one third of the track Maze maintains high quality due to it’s originality, fun sounds and lively lead playing.
   The final track is mostly electronic strings and synth pads, with more male poetry chanting. By now that feature has outstayed it’s welcome for me, as the effect has already been used twice in a similar manner. The track sounds powerful enough without the voice, with its wide, fat strings capes that reminds me of Goblin and also the mighty string sounds of the Elka Synthex.

   Sense is quite an original album, at least within the spacey melodic European tradition. It does not fall into a specific electronic category, but shows an artist with integrity who tries to think outside the box, while still keeping his musical concepts on familiar grounds. Making an electronic album with fresh compositions that are both classic and original seems like a lost art these days.
   The album’s strongest side is its epic and wide songs that are somewhat traditional, but featuring some interestingly tweaked and unusual sounds. On the weak side, the album’s technical sound could be slightly more dynamic and spicey and crisp engineering-wise, and sounds somewhat flat now. But for it’s type of music, Sense is a successful album that balances on the fine edge between traditionalism and experiments within the given format.
   Rating 7.5 of 10

   2007. Glenn Folkvord