Sound Colour Vibration (Music | Art | Film | Technology | Science | Culture)

Monochromie, the musical side of multi-talented artist Wilson Trouve, has come full circle in the debut release Angels and Demons on a new imprint we are starting to cover, Fluttery Records. As an ambient, minimally shaped record that is a timeless accomplishment into modern psych and chamber music, the thirteen tracks that grace this album are spiritually laced in all forms. Piano, keyboard and other natural instrumentation becomes the vehicle of expression with washes of synthetic overtones that make the music out of this world. The piano and keyboards come in stridently deep and in a highly composed form. With a lot of color to process, the piano and keys are the life support of every song, carrying the weight of all the melodic presence into very deep corridors of emotion. The field of sound that creates the glossy and hazy affect of the music is indescribable from its delightful yet fully realized emotional resonance. It’s a very soothing sound that reminds me of large landscapes where the mind has constant sources of stimulating interaction coming across.

What makes Angels and Demons a really different album than anything else coming out right now is the consistency of different worlds sitting boldly and perfectly together and exactly how they relate to one another. The piano work is classical in direction and the field of electronics gives the piano harmonies a very different aura. When analyzing classical forms of music, I have always envisioned this type of bridge being created where modern musings into sound collages can sit side by side with chamber influenced composition work.

Fields of lush soundscapes create a euphoria inside of Angels and Demons, leaving the possibilities of sound to the imagination and not just what comes into the speakers. Music this colorful and open to interpretation elevates my senses in the widest spaces possible. This elevation puts me into a really relaxed and calm state, allowing myself to enter the music in a completely unabridged way. One of the stand out pieces for me is the track “Erosion”. With a faint trace of electronic percussion, the mix becomes saturated into a field of mutated static and beautiful melodies. It’s a sound that makes me feel a deep sense of inner peace and it’s an impact upon initial listening that has stuck in my mind since the moment I made contact. The layers that swell up and encircle the music is breath taking and it’s the type of direction in composition that I absolutely love about modern music.

Two other pieces that really took my senses by surprise are “White Storm” and “Frozen Sea”. With natural additives of static and haze, “White Storm” becomes energized from the driving synth melody. The tempo is a lot more charged in this song and it feels like it is breaking apart with all of the overtones that crash into the core of the piece. Completely synthetic, there is still a warmth that gives it the strength of the pieces that have piano. The synth is modulated into very divergent paths and its this experimental technique that is a beautiful example of the different areas this album touches on. “Frozen Sea” sounds huge and has an omnipresence in synth that is something beyond words. I feel like I am watching a meteor shower when I hear this song. It’s these moments when connected to a record that I really give a lot of thanks to a musician like Monochromie.

I have really been enjoying a lot of ambient music coming out this year and Angels and Demons from Monochromie is a new direction in this field of music. If you love records that are minimal in design, highly colorful and drifts into unusual sheets of landscapes that unfold in the most intricate forms, you have to hear this record.

-Erik Otis

Order a copy of Angels and Demons from Flutter Records HERE