David Helpling & Jon Jenkins – Crossing

3 reviews for David Helpling & Jon Jenkins – Crossing

1. 

   Richard Grtler / Slovakia – 2022-11-22

   For sure the stunning artwork of Michal Karcz from Poland will attract each listener even without exploring the sonic part of The Crossing”. But let’s hear the music of these two Californians.

   The album starts right away with “Awake”

2. 

   Kristian Persson / Sweden – 2022-11-22

   Just when you thought David Helpling & Jon Jenkins were at their heights with the album ‘Treasure’, the album ‘The Crossing’ has surfaced after 2 years of waiting. And what a stunning album it is! And I always thought ‘Treasure’ would be unbeatable, boy how wrong could I be. With ‘The Crossing’ they have pushed their creative musical ideas and inspiration to the next level. The album itself is a highly melodic synth journey, very similar to ‘Treasure’, only this time there is an ever deeper (and somewhat darker) melodic feel to it.

   All the tracks are incredibly well structured, and contains some of the most gorgeous sonic soundscapes I have ever heard before. Both the synths and the percussion plays a very important role in this album, with it’s melodic themes washing over you on most of the tracks. It is so lush and infectious that you will want to listen to the album on repeat, again…and again! With tracks such as ‘From the Smallest Seed’ and ‘To the ends of the Earth’, these artists have eclipsed themselves. These tracks are a synth feast for your ears and contains the most stunning synth sequencing I have ever heard in my entire life, no doubt about that. It reminds me alot of tracks such as ‘This Day Forward’ & ‘The Frozen Channel’ from the album ‘Treasure’. Brilliant melodic atmosphere!
   Other notable tracks are ‘For The Fallen’ and ‘Not Forgotten’. There’s a sense of depth and mystery to them and will surely evoke your deepest inner feelings.
   Another moody yet melodic piece is ‘Two Paths’. With this track you will be in for another highly cinematic treat! It builds very slowly with echoing guitar textures and lush synth work, and has tons of atmosphere to it. It’s another melodic soundscape that washes over your ears in a very delicate way.

   All in all, this album has it all in it’s very own and unique (but typical Helpling/Jenkins signature sound) way. It’s drenched in elusive textures, guitars, synths, and percussion that forms this ambient masterpiece way beyond words. It will take you on a journey to the ends of the earth…and back! I can’t recommend this album enough, wish I could give it 10 stars instead of 5!
   It’s another winning epic masterpiece! Buy it without hesitation, and do it…NOW!!

   2010. Kristian Persson / Sweden

3. 

   Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness – 2022-11-22

   There are albums like that. Albums difficult to describe! Not because they are not good, but rather because each title seems to be conceived with the same musical ideology. The Crossing, the 2nd collaboration of David Helpling and Jon Jenkins, is of this kind. A beautiful album that we listen to as one observes a photo album or an exhibition of musical paintings inspired of whimsical landscapes of these two artists to musical antipodes. If Helping likes to cherish softness of New Age, Jon Jenkins is more mordent and likes brushing music closer to progressive electronic. By doing this, the two artists in extreme territorial of a world split by tectonic plates meet by creating a music inspired by sinuous bass movements of Patrick O’ Hearn, tribal and synthesized wanderings of Rudy Adrian and musical mysticism of Mark Isham. The result is an album of which music pieces are shape in the same mould, except for some nuances, and where divided rhythms abound in atmospheres in suspension, there where New Age and EM weave sometimes redundant musical canvas, but all the same quite attracting.

   Awake starts this musical voyage with a synth which moulds slow hybrid layers that a guitar scrapes of its harmonious galloping keys. Short track but intense, Awake evolves in a dramatic crescendo whose culminating point is its final which explodes of an amalgam of guitar and keyboards chords and percussions that strike a soft latent rhythmic. A title with a progressive evolution just like the very powerful and moving The Crossing and Lifted as well as From The Smallest Seed which is a bit lighter.
   Two Paths is more representative of the universe which surrounds The Crossing. A little like everywhere on the album, the guitar of David Helping is floating. It releases tickled notes whose resonances form echotic loops that float in delicate tinkling atmospheric. Notes in suspension which furrow musical structures whose rhythms are divided by mordant percussions and filled up with beautiful layers of a synth more oniric than progressive, seeking to protect the soundscapes approach which immerses all around The Crossing. One cannot also be unaware of Patrick O’ Hearn bass structures influences which shape rhythmic sometimes suave and sensual, sometimes eclectic. With its split up rhythms on a hesitant structure and superb percussions, The Lesson is very near Two Paths structure.
   The Same Sky is a beautiful ambient track where everything is in suspension. A musical world turning slowly with guitar notes which stiffen on a synth with layers of desert dunes. A beautiful title that shows ambient can indeed be melodious.
   The intro of For the Fallen follows the floating tangent of Above All. A soft intro weaved by layers of a dreamy synth, in communion with the stars, which embrace Roach structures on Western Spaces. A beautiful ambient title, just like the very quiet Not Forgotten!
   To The Ends of the World espouse pretty well its meaning with an ambient intro where the percussions mould an avalanche of thunders which strike a desert dressed of oniric pads. Guitar notes, always scattered and floating, add a more melancholic approach whereas the bass line carves a solitary movement. A very beautiful track where splitting up cadences annihilates the ambient charm while really depicting an ambiance totally apocalyptic and angelic.

   Did I like The Crossing? Lets say that it is not really my cup of tea. I prefer, and by far, a more complex EM with constant progressive sequenced structures. Elements that we don’t find on The Crossing. On the other hand, I must admit that there are superb titles hiding behind these parallel structures which make that one has sometimes the impression to hear the same track, track after track. A thing that annoyed me a bit.

   2010. Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness