Description
- Long Way To The Dale [7:06]
- Frost Remains [5:10]
- Inertness [6:14]
![MP3 soundclip of Inertness [0:56]](/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/m3u.gif)
- Density Waves [4:52]
- Behind The Shadows [3:48]
- Monolite [6:54]
- The Beginning Of The End [4:00]
- Still Falling [6:44]
- Walking To The Red Mountain [4:08]
- Nocturn [6:24]
- Isolated World [6:42]
- Retrospective [3:04]
Ambient, no sequencing
Artemi Pugachov / Encyclopedia of Electronic Music –
What, an ambient album from Javi Canovas? Yes! And why not, I am asking? After all, he had already proved himself as a serious sound sculptor on his previous releases, with one or two beatless numbers finding their place on most. Here, he decided to depart completely from his usual sequencer-based style to concentrate on flowing atmospheres and hypnotic melodic ambiences.
Long Way To the Dale” begins with soft and mysterious pads that remind me on Steve Roach and maybe also some Robert Rich stuff. The sound is breathy
Sylvain Lupari / Guts of Darkness –
This new Javi Canovas opus risks to surprise, even amazed, his fans. Having accustomed us to an EM filled with heavy sequences and rhythms, the Spanish synthesist abandons its sequential surges to dedicate itself to a more atmospheric and a more ambient sound universe. An artistic move already touches on In This Moment, In This Place where he explored a little bit more the ambient world than on its first works. On the other hand, it was an ambient universe which spawned and flew among furious sequential movements. On Behind the Shadows, there are no sequences. Javi Canovas shares with his fans a small solitary pleasure which he cherishes for some years. Behind the Shadows is a collection of 12 tracks, all very different from each others, on soft and somber atmospheric moments inspired by the Nick Stevens very beautiful artwork.
A distant synthesized blow opens Behind the Shadows first wavering. A warm breath coming from unique tones of Javi Canovas synth. A little as in the universe of Roach, we have the feelings to float among meanders of an abyssal cave where subtle oscillations get mix up to dark vocals which change, such as oniric singings of which echoes are trapped in an underground world. A beautiful movement and a beautiful opening on Canovas floating music first steps of which we can feel Steve Roach influence as on Still Falling and Retrospective.
Frost Remains soaks in a more metallic universe where strata in suspension float in a colder pattern, shaping a striking contrast with the introduction track.
Dark and intriguing, Inertness spreads its weakened glass sonorities with a surprising atmospheric vision. Here, as on The Beginning of the End, the magnetic and metallic Nocturn and Isolated World, Javi Canovas signs its music of a touch of his own. We cant establish a comparison, except a distant one that links with Vidna Obmana, to place better the reader.
Quite as Monolite, Density Waves is heavy and stuffed with spectral resonances on strata which overfly through a lead gravity. Some black and dark ambient where delicate synthesized layers pierce with parsimony this wall of opacity and floating sound. The Spanish synthesist likes using the modulations of absent choirs which are shaping marvelously to this atonal universe where only the oscillations of the synthesized lines liven up these abstract movements. A very beautiful title, quite as Behind the Shadows and its soundscapes approach where a distant and galactic nature seems to live under morphic strata. We feel the influence of Roach, and even Eno as the length of tracks which are strangely short for a heavy ambient music.
An ambient album remains an ambient album. There is little to say except that 12 music pieces to different oscillations eventually meet, as a big sound framework of 65 minutes. What it is necessary is that this first Javi Canovas ambient album has nothing to envy to great masters works in this domain. It is evident that the Spanish synthesist is strongly influenced by Robert Rich, Steve Roach and even Brian Eno. Making it, the universe of Behind the Shadows is covered with these influences, while respecting the personal approach of Canovas that we can feel on many titles. If you are a fan of loud ambient music, to slow oscillations stuffed with abstract and fanciful choirs, Behind the Shadows will certainly please you.
2010. Sylvain Lupari / Guts of Darkness