3 reviews for Beyond the Airwaves, Volume 2

1. David Dupont (verified owner) – April 30, 2015

   Having had the opportunity to listen to the whole album before its official release, I can report that the two halves (or side one and side two) are very different from each other.

   Side One (First half)
   This is, in reality, one single track (Dreams and Desire suite), like in the good old days of Prog Rock vinyl, and one to be savoured with multiple listens. Compared to Volume One (a masterpiece in its own right), this is altogether more dreamlike, while being lively at the same time. Carys’s “smooth as smoke” voice drifts in and out, supplying the right amount of calmness against the building insistent background rhythms. The whole side develops subtly, while seemingly remaining the same, so it feels like a complete story. The comparison with Klaus Schulze and Lias Gerrard is inevitable, but where they appeared to be two disparate powers, occasionally merging to create something special, Carys manages to gently envelop the music, so that nothing seems out of place. As I listen to more of it, I’m sure I will discover even more to enjoy wrapped inside the complex sounds beneath. This one has legs!

   Side Two (Second half)
   As a complete break, Side Two (edited from live recordings) is a side of different moods and rhythms. The gentle heart-beat build-up of ‘Animism’ gets you in the mood for the full lushness of Ghost Dancer, with the Santana-esque guitar of Lee Morant floating through the track. Then a sudden change of mood as the tension builds in ‘Vision Quest’, heralding the main track of the side, ‘Return to the Plains’, (harking back to ‘Moments in Time’, but with more urgency) sending us on a pacy horse ride through the desert, while the guitar screams out like vultures circling overhead (!), and, as the air shimmers with heat, we disappear gently into the far side of ‘Earth and Sky’.

   In ‘Call to Me’, Carys’s smooth voice recalls the breathy vocals of the Cocteau Twins ‘made modern’ by the playful synth background, equally at home in a chill-out lounge or travelling along a coastline train in summer.

   Finally, a further variation of the well-known ‘Walking with Ghosts’, always good for a listening, full of bitter-sweet lyricism and turned up a notch with the chill-out backbeat. It is as equally enjoyable as the ‘stripped bare’ version, depending on your mood. A nice cup of sweet black coffee to finish the meal!

   To sum up
   Side 1 Dreamy and complex
   Side 2 Cool and Hot and Cool again

   Favourite track: Ghost Dancer (could almost be released as a single!)

2. Sylvain Lupari – gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca (verified owner) – May 20, 2015

   It feels good to hear new music from David Wright. This last opus which is a logical continuation announced during the launch of Beyond the Airwaves Vol.1. Constituted in 3 parts; ‘Dreaming Desire’, ‘Return to the Plains and the bonus section, “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2” offers two structures knotted in slow evolutions which will reach their own zenith very separate from each one. Altogether, it’s yet a beautiful album. A very musical one (are we surprised?) where the imprints of Carys and Robert Fox sign a very ethereal first part. Some will say a New Age part, and I have to agree but I’ll add with a more tribal Electronica zest. The mix is good. While that Return to the Plains is more in David Wright’s tradition. But no matter the ways taken to solve “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2”, the perfumes of Walking with Ghosts are there extremely present. Which in the end sounds like some very good news.
   That comes by far! That comes from a part of the country where the ether is the elixir of serenity. A long breeze full of sun spreads a soft dreamlike veil where a synth filled by scents of flute play harmonies of a Kitaro genre on a delicate bed of prisms to silvery reflections. The first bastion of “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2” passes by the very meditative introduction of “False Dawn”. Effects and electronic noises, as well as some elements of sound drama, are perturbing the serenity of the moment, introducing even a shape of rhythm which skips and will skip as the singings of a paradisiacal bird. An enthralling voice as much acuteness as spectral adds a phantasmagorical touch to the finale of “False Dawn” which little by little falls under the charms of a slow tempo, decorated by the suave voice of Carys which spreads its bewitchments over the line of bass sequences of which the slow pulse pounds delicately in a meshing of riffs and percussions which raise dusts of the light rhythm of “Sirens”. The electronic effects and the poignant orchestrations accentuate a filmic approach, even a dramatic one, with this slow rhythm which increases its heaviness in the moods of “Dreaming Desire”. Here also the voice of Carys and the orchestrations dominate a rhythm which aims to be a little more insistent without ever overflowing its delicate dreamlike envelope. We are in the field of quiet music. “Remembering Where we Were” leads us to the first pinnacle of “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2” with a delicately more insistent structure of rhythm. It’s a nice morphic down-tempo with a zest of électronica adorned of delicious synth solos of which the strident charms can confuse a listening which wonders if it’s not the voice of Carys that we really hear. A guitar comes to decorate this seraphic duel which brings out some Dreaming Desire of its New Age envelope. This is a good track which grows finely in intensity and gets lost for a while in “Point Two” where the voice of Carys and these synth breezes which sing like astral mermaids rule over the ambiences of a very ambient tribal genre. In very well-kept arrangements which push a more lively structure, “Sign of Three” and “Where we are is Where we’ve Been” take back the role of “Remembering Where we Were” where the voice of Carys mixes its charms and introduces ambient/rhythm duels in luxurious orchestral arrangements.
   “Animism” opens the more electronic part of “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2” with a pattern of ambient rhythm which multiplies its disordered pulsations in the ringings of a rebel xylophone, electronic noises, foggy gases and synth pads waterlogged of apocalyptic rustles. If Dreaming Desire flirted with the ghosts of Walking with Ghosts, the harmonies and the very light rhythm of “Ghost Dancer” throws us downright there. Lee Morant’s guitar is as good as any fine bluesman, while the paradisiac rhythm awakens the souvenirs of a certain album in 2002. “Vision Quest” cut out these ambiences quite abruptly with a surprising tribal ambient approach where shamanic murmurs and other ones closer to schizophrenia are melting to the beams of a sonic hoop and of its metallic glints which propagate until the introduction of “Return to the Plains”; the climax of “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2”. Under the bites of Lee Morant’s six-strings, “Return to the Plains” gets transformed into a solid up-beat. A rhythm which gallops of its intertwined pulsations/sequences and which forges the limits of a heavy techno always decorated of these shamanic prayers which shout in splendid orchestrations. And the qualifier of splendid here is very beautiful. This sounds very Code Indigo. “Earth and Sky” takes us to the lands of melancholy where, always very bluesy, Lee Morant’s guitar caresses our ears with the same poetry as Carys’ voice. We are in the bonus tracks part with “Call to Me”; a piece of music written with Carys. It’s a very deep relaxing Chill Out. Same goes with “Walking with Ghosts” which is a Chill Out Mix done by DJMass. Those are bonus tracks. Thus it is to be taken or ignore. I took them. Listened and was pleased as it’s still good material from David Wright. And this Carys…what a voice she has. But still there: voices are not my cup of tea.
   In all honesty? I had to struggle hard to tie bonds with this “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2”. Mainly for the Dreaming Desire part. But he still wins. Little by little, David Wright goes away from this David Wright who has amazed by his musical esthetic. A signature which challenged the laws of modern EM of an England School style. But wasn’t it always that? The man always avoided the etiquettes, being happy to do what he knows how to do best; offering a good melodious and dreamlike EM. Sometimes even a little bit progressive and audacious by flirting with the free style that is Electronica. And it’s very exactly of what is made “Beyond the Airwaves Vol. 2”. If the extremely seraphic voice of Carys and Robert Fox’s arrangements bring the Dreaming Desire segment near to New Age, it’s done properly and never we fell it insipid. Even if sometimes orchestrations try to shake the sleepy tears of our soul. But Return to the Plains? WoW! This is 24 minutes of pure delight which gives us the taste to hear again what David Wright has more to offer.
   Sylvain Lupari (May 16th, 2015)
   gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca

3. Ian Carpenter-Walker (verified owner) – May 31, 2015

   This just doesn’t sound like anybody else! It’s a beautiful album. Love the heavier feel and beautiful vocals – stunning! Got to be one of the great EM CDs – magnificent – over the moon with it. Fantastic production – fantastic music by a genius. Thanks so much for this incredible music.

   Ian Carpenter-Walker