Lambert & Palantir Finis Terrae

Lambert is one of those musicians that to me always works best when he collaborates with others. His combined CD with Stephen Parsick ‘Trancesession’ was one of SMD’s all time best sellers. Like that CD, this one resulted from spontaneous improvisations edited down and in this case with some sound effects added. We in fact picked this CD up at KLEMdag but didn’t review it in the last magazine because I wanted to make it club choice and three club choices would have been one too many! The music here is unashamedly analogue and sequential but what really gets me is the quality of the lead lines, almost unbelievable for an improvised recording. The first track ‘Ancient Shore’ starts in a very melodic fashion but it isn’t too long before a sequencer is pushed into full service and the quality of that sequence could not be bettered. The second track ‘World of Stones’ is the longest at over twenty one minutes. The sea and wind effects are disturbed by the sound of a synthesized Cello. A melancholy lead line then takes over and really pulls at the heart strings. At the five minute mark the inevitable sequence makes an entrance and it develops into a real barn storming cracker. A searing, distorted lead line makes a brief appearance then the rhythm is introduced and lead, slightly more restrained this time, returns. Bloody wonderful! ‘Darkland’ is a short, dark, underwater track and really acts as a bridge to ‘Open Sky’. Missiles fly over leaving a silence only broken by synth flute. The missiles return and a new sequence emerges, yep another winner! The melody plays with the sequence and a restrained rhythm snuggles between the two. As the track develops the lead lines and rhythms just gets better and better. Last up is ‘Black Flood’. A dark rhythm marks time over a simple piano melody, atmospheric and eerie. The piano does go on a little bit too much but this is really only a very minor quibble on such a superb album. The last three minutes of the track really are dark and strange. They would have fitted very nicely in one of the more abstract moments of Johannes Schmoelling’s White Out album. A great way to finish. (DL)

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