A bliss pop synthedelic effort recommended for fans of Berlin school and programmed ambient minimalism.
ARC is the super project formed by Ian Boddy and Mark Shreeve, two pioneering actors in the world of textured ambient / electronic space music. Separately or in this common project their music appears to be the British answer to German Kosmische Musik and L.A Sacred space synth odysseys. ARC was formed back at the end of the 90s and produced none less than nine albums, most of those are engineered by Ian Boddy at his DiN studios and electronic laboratory.
For having reviewed the last ARC live recording release (Umbra) a couple of months ago, I was curious to give a try on this new one to have a closer appreciation about the way the duet is sounding on stage. Most of the tracks gathered on this album are taken from their last studio opus with three new tracks. Arclight is made of recordings taken from a live performance at Capstone Theatre, Liverpool back in November 2014. The prevailing musical atmosphere is focused on eloquent and deep space ambient sequences for long flowing synth motifs, hypnotic drum patterns and haunting electronic arpeggios. Macro sonic sound excursions which confirm that this duet has a great ability to write and perform a sort of cinematic, abstract, epic and ethereal musical symphonies. The self-titled track starts with a majestic, softly moving synthscaping piece for enveloping and spaced out keyboards with a nice melodious-inflected tendency. Evocative soloing guitars in a radical and efficient psychedelic mood progressively come to the fore, sustained by tripped out electronic arpeggios. “Filtered through haze” offers a detached and cosmic synth reverie before to go back to punchy, beat-driven spaced out instrumentals as in the complex or in the mysteriously groovy “Into dust.”
Arclight is a bliss pop synthedelic effort recommended for fans of Berlin school and programmed ambient minimalism.
Arclight is available on DiN.
