5 reviews for Prophecy

1. Steve Sheppard – January 25, 2017

   David Wright is back with a brand new album and ably assisting him on some quite amazing and ethereal vocalisations is Carys. We are on a stunning journey through the cosmos, and each and every track has been performed and produced with such a breath-taking narrative quality.
   It is said that the whales are the record keepers of the universe, here on this release they are not only that, they are our guide through this musical realm of electronic majesty, as you will see throughout the album, and especially on the mournful Serinus Rising and the climatic and inspiring, Where the Whales Still Sing.
   Prophecy is an album that will thrill you with its power play compositions like Ocean to The Stars Parts 1 to 3, the latter being a far more subtle offering. It will leave you aghast with its textures and colours through pieces like the opener Watching For Nephele and the lush and quite outstanding Quarter to Yesterday.
   David Wright is one of the pioneers of the modern day electronic music field and on this release it is as if he has rolled back the years, and this musical alignment of the stars with singer Carys, has produced something quite deep, moving and powerful. Listen to the amalgamation of talent on the addictive and rhythmic Beyond The Veil to further emphasise that point.
   Prophecy is a fifteen quality track release that will take you on a musical sojourn of a lifetime, superbly produced and brilliantly performed and with that extra special cutting edge of something quite multi-dimensional and memorable. This is one album that any sane music fan will want to hurriedly add to their collection.
   Steve Sheppard – One World Radio

2. Sylvain Lupari – February 11, 2017

   Muffled sonic waves put our senses in appetite. Without knowing really if we float between the drifts of the cosmos or the depths of the oceans, the tranquility of “Watching for Nephele” shines with azure lines which are illuminated by sibylline harmonies and by panting breaths from a flute of which the origin remains to determine. With felted knockings and even more accentuated misty mood, the abstruse ambiences of “Watching for Nephele” slide towards “Serinus Rising” and its songs of sirens as well as its chirpings of a kind of aquatic animal always to identify which enchant our ears always in appetite. David Wright is unarguably one of the most beautiful composers of contemporary EM. A little snubbed by the hard-liners who worship only the Berlin School style, or the heavy English e-rock, this brilliant English musician signs and persists with an EM always very sophisticated and his English style which flirts profoundly with the New Age. The result turns into some very musical albums where his melodious perfumes surf with the vestiges of his magnificent Walking with Ghosts released in 2002 and of which we still look forward to its re-issue. In fact, this David Wright’s key album knew always how to illuminate the harmonious ambiences of his up-coming albums and “Prophecy” is not different except that it’s the album which gets the most closer to it. Composed with the collaboration of the English singer Carys, “Prophecy” is a wonderful journey towards this unknown meeting point where the oceans pour towards the cosmos. An intense album and, in my humble opinion, David Wright’s most beautiful album since 2002. And, considering the quality of his albums since then, it means that it’s an album without flaws where the balance between the moments of ambiences and the big explosive electronic rock of the English style is completely exceptional.
   Each title, like most of David Wright’s albums by the way, is solidly imbricated one to another, giving a superb musical story which is just impossible to interrupt. “Night Tide” gets loose from the morphic chants of “Serinus Rising” with a delicate movement of sequences which winds up the unknown of its continual comings and goings. The uncountable vocal breezes of Carys are like some kind of anesthetizing perfumes and float behind this hypnotic movement which reveals a splendid approach of a violin for which we have never expected to tears up the moods. Idyllic, this orchestral harmony transports us until the heavy and threatening “Diving Skywards” among whom the effects of staccato of the violin and the atmospheres energised by a storm to come exercise a rise of adrenalin. And it takes off! It explodes with the astonishing saga of Ocean to Stars. “Ocean to Stars, Pt. I” starts things up with a heavy rhythm which unifies techno and the England School. We tap of both feet and we roll of the neck on this very inviting rhythm where David Wright forges some very harmonious synth layers which he harmonizes with synth solos as much catchy. And as usual, the founder of the AD Music label has this gift to throw into his structures strands of melodies which will remain anchored in our ears a very long time after the first listening. And that’s the case with the one which unifies the 2 first parts of Ocean to Stars. And if you don’t whistle on this melody that David Wright transforms at the whim of his synth, I don’t know what to say! Ocean to Stars pours on its 3rd part with a rhythmic always so lively and where the voice of Carys and the synth violin effects sing this melody eater of eardrums in a delicious soundscape of the East. These 22 minutes of “Prophecy” are going to haunt you my friends, and this for a long time. “Absolute Zero” calms things down a little bit with a delicate lunar lullaby which flows towards the morphic atmospheres of “Whales Weep Not” with the voice of Carys which dominates the very melancholic harmonies of the violin in an environment of tranquillity where we find there a little Mind Over Matter’s perfumes from Music for Paradise. And if we believed to have reached the nirvana with the trilogy of Ocean to Stars, “Cosmic Dancer” redefines these parameters with a rhythm as lively which swirls with a seraphic slowness in a superb duel between solos and orchestrations of a synth in mode Walking with Ghosts. Impossible here to not draw this parallel because the harmonious approach of “Cosmic Dancer” seems to be weaved in the cave of this epic title of David Wright’s catalog. “Quarter to Yesterday” is another delicate lunar cradle song which knots the orchestrations and the murmurs of Carys around a spiral harped by a delicate keyboard. A very beautiful synth solo leads us to “Song of Orcinius” where the celestial voice of Carys takes also the shape of those aerial torsade up until the very lively rhythm of “Beyond the Veil”. What else to add? David Wright puts everything on it here with his morphic techno filled of those charms and those harmonies which eat our eardrums. The play of the percussions is as well rich as solid and the synth, always very just, throws harmonies under forms of solo besides weaving orchestrations which fill the airs while the voice of Carys adds even more to a charm as medieval as contemporary. And as all good things must come to an end, “Where the Whales Still Sing” ends “Prophecy” with a very intense and orchestral approach which reminds to us how the music of Vangelis has influenced David Wright’s visions.
   “Prophecy” is an intense work! From the first second to the last one, David Wright captivates us and enjoys firing us the hairs of the backspine and the sighs of beatitude with an album rich in lively rhythms and in melodies eaters of ears. While adding an element of charm, the voice of Carys doesn’t hinder at no moment David Wright’s highly melodious signature which is more intense than ever here with rich orchestrations, solos which nail us to our earphones and sound effects which ally the oceans to the cosmos. In brief an album without smudges that I have savoured my ears full to the top and where I was telling myself how beautiful music is. How EM can be wonderful! And if Walking with Ghosts was the reference album when we spoke about David Wright, this “Prophecy” follows it from now on for years to come.
   Sylvain Lupari (February 3rd, 2017)

3. John Valk (radiosunrise.de) (verified owner) – February 17, 2017

   What an album! Awesome in so many ways! John Valk Waveman (radio)

4. CDS – Dave Shoesmith (verified owner) – August 8, 2017

   ‘Waiting For Nephele’ finds David Wright slowly travelling (quietly) further into the deepest, darkest depths of ambient space than he has ever dared before!
   ‘Serinus Rising’ – It’s getting louder (slightly) and more focussed now but with no sense of a tune or melody in sight anywhere as we wander through this dark, stark trip, drifting deeper into the outer reaches of space, with just faint echoes of other curious distant sounds hidden behind black holes and other distant constellations. Towards the close of this track I was reminded of a more ambient part of Isao Tomita’s ‘Cosmos’ album!
   ‘Night Tide’ opens with a slowly drifting synth rhythmic sequence begins to materialise here with distant angelic voices peeping out of the bleak darkness, then what sounds like a cello or violin bring the first sound of anything resembling a melody line, and it’s a rather beautiful improvised one at that carries a more that a hint or two towards Kitaro at his dream-like best that I found enthralling – Sheer beauty steeped in heavy atmosphere!
   ‘Diving Skywards’ finds the first sign of the Carys’s vocal treatments where a floating female voice hovers over an emerging “Berlin School” style sequencer line and weaves all around it leaving trails of cosmic dust in it’s wake, and we are definitely moving into a more brightly coloured area of the cosmos that offers something a littler more familiar from this artist.
   ‘Ocean To Stars – Part 1’ opens with a full-on sequencer rhythm guiding us through space – at speed too – with a strong (really strong) melody taking the helm and now we are flying with a strong sense of purpose with melody streaming over the infections rhythmic run in true Dave Wright style!
   ‘Ocean To Stars – Part 2’ returns to a less rhythmic, but ethereal approach where a high register female synth voice passage develops into a new and powerful rhythmic theme with huge keyboard melodies soaring high and low with some more high-register “whistle” style Tomita influenced leads coming in here and there. Now we really are back into much more familiar David Wright territory!
   There’s a flawless crossover into: ‘Ocean To Stars – Part 3’ and whilst holding on to the central melodic / rhythmic theme of the previous two movements, this section now features Carys voice improvisations over more rhythms and ethereal textures, plus some nice melodic synth cello touches.
   ‘Absolute Zero’ starts at a gentle lopping pace amid a panorama of ghostly voices and effects, then develops into a short, symphonic, spacey theme that serves as an introduction to… ‘Whales Weep Not’ that features Carys whispering over an atmospheric backdrop of spacey effects and gentle synth melodies that swirls up into a vast, cascading symphonic passage then crosses over over into… ‘Absolute Zero {Reprise}’ which contains more ethereal ghostly (almost Enigma-like) voices and effects layered over a backdrop of strings and cosmic textural effects with Carys voice whispers adding to the ethereal effect. ‘Cosmic Dancer’ is a longer and beautiful flowing track containing one of Dave’s haunting, slowly developing synth melodies set over a sea of sweeping celestial string synths, with some added treated voice textures coming in at various points.
   ‘Quarter To Yesterday’ takes the form of a slowly evolving synth rhythm surrounded by whale-like sounds overlaid with panoramic symphonic melodies and some whispered voice effects from Carys.
   ‘Song Of Orcinius’ moves straight into a short kaleidoscopic display of high register synth string and electronic voice sounds before a rhythm enters through the mix and diverts into…
   ‘Beyond The Veil’ – where the high-register synth melody precedes a soaring brassy synth melody hails over more choral effects, with a strong rhythm driving the melodic theme through the bulk of the track – a very typical David Wright track indeed!
   ‘Where The Whales Still Sing’ closes ‘Prophesy’ in an ethereal atmosphere where deep choral voices echo in the distance, and it’s a track that is firmly back in the cosmic style with distant whispers evolving into a powerful piece of symphonic / choral synth music of the highest order.

   Where as ‘Prophesy’ is not what I would term as a “normal” David Wright album, it’s not far off being just that either! Once you get past the initial couple of really spacey tracks you are in much more familiar territory, albeit at times of the more celestial variety than we would expect from this popular synth musician. However, were he ventures towards the more cosmic end of the synth music spectrum it is very worthwhile and successful! The music is beautifully played and produced, and there’s more than ample helpings of these hauntingly striking and beautiful melodies David is held in awe for by his fanbase.
   For the interest of the hardcore synth music fans who don’t take to kindly to “voices” within the styles they love, the Carys effect does not carry the music even further away from the “normal” David Wright sound – in actual fact her input proves to be far less intrusive than I expected it was going to be, instead adding an ethereal quality that expands the scope of the themes revolving within the music.

5. Side-lin Music (verified owner) – August 15, 2018

   Background/Info: David Wright was one of the AD Music founders and is the first artist who released productions on the label. David Wright can now look back at an impressive discography and still gets the inspiration to explore further sound paths. A few years ago he got in touch with Carys who joined him on stage during live performances. Both artists now have accomplished this “ Prophecy”-album.

   Content: The music of David Wright is pure synthesizer music rapidly reminding me of some of the most famous pioneers in the genre. This is the kind of artist appealing for fans of Jean-Michel Jarre, but simply to all lovers of early electronic music. Ou get the feeling to be transported among the stars. “ Prophecy” has a transcendental feeling, which is only accentuated by the sensual and angelic vocals of Carys.

   + + + : “Prophecy” is a beautiful work, the kind of release an artist can be proud of. But it also is the music David Wright is now dealing with since the nineties. He however still finds the inspiration to move on exploring new paths. I personally like the kind of contrast between his music and violin-like sounds. It sounds a bit like a sonic clash between space-music and neo-classic music, but in the end it sounds cohesive and deeply artistic. The analogue sound treatments always have this particular kind of magic, which is reinforced by the beautiful vocals of Carys. The production reflects a high degree of knowledge and comes close to perfection.
   There are many great artists in the genre of David Wright, but there’s only one Jean-Michel Jarre. I don’t want to make too much of a comparison, but this is the kind of album that rapidly evokes such a legendary artist.

   Conclusion: This is pure vintage electro-space music accomplished with a masterly production process and resulting in a stunning piece of music.
   Sieline Music Mag