Thierry David :: Six Waves (A Train Entertainment / KVOX)

Thierry David explores the engaging balance between the accessibility of irreducible energy and experimentation or playful exploration.

Cosmic expansiveness

The wind blows and causes a series of events, almost like a journey, to commence. The sound is melodic, a little bit dark, and very easy to listen to. There are a wide variety of instrumental voices, the feeling is both complicated and easy going, like the wind. Thierry David explores the engaging balance between the accessibility of irreducible energy and experimentation or playful exploration. I hear Zen awakenings, imaginary voyages, sonic mosaics, accessible popular beats, international voices and instruments, space music, lounge music, this guy has made an amazing life out of his wide-ranging love of music. Six Waves is reminiscent of the cosmic expansiveness of Jean-Michel Jarre, the textured rhythms of Cluster, and the ethereal landscapes of Brian Eno’s APOLLO, and deserves to be called strange and mysterious. I call it calming space music, each track explores a different musical place, what they have in common is the musical vision of Thierry David.

From the oceans of chaos, events can then bring about other events, “Causality” (5:08) begins exploring the physical and geometrical notions of time and space. I hear wind and keyboards, always long sustained tones, maybe a slow and dreamy guitar, bending notions of time and space. The second track starts to glow, an electronic rattle growls up from under a new drone bed, “Into the Wave Axis” (10:30) develops into a stealthy tempo, the electrical axis of the heart is the new direction in which the wave of depolarization travels. We slip through complex layers of instruments and drone-like tones, kind of a kosmische feel, gigantic electronic planetscapes, sparse but complex, for a time the bass takes up the beat while the guitar searches all around.

A warm glow emerges, slow and dreamy ::

The third track, “Elliptical Tales” (9:57), begins and a warm glow emerges, slow and dreamy, then strengthens, and something new lights up and vibrates on past, like a harp comet, getting brighter and now the bass has arrived, bringing periodic glissando sighs, with swirling details. Here nothing is rushed, all is quite soothing and sleepy. The guitar has arrived, fingerpicking classical strings, this is a multi instrument pattern flowing along with things that are backward, which I think sounds cool as we drift into the welcoming darkness.

“Ultrasonic Vibes” (10:16) has the beat, the track starts with an image in my mind of metal cables in the wind, a low growl, we soon find that beat, jazzy, funky, loose. A compelling pulse and engaging sense of motion. We ride past distant cities of light and into the remote future, riding inside a comfortable chamber with a view. Things shift about up in the sky and beyond, the color lights up the area nearby. Slowing down now. Is this the end of the track? The beat comes back and we are shadow patterns dancing and carrying on, deeper we go off dancing the whole way.

Now we are deep under water, the atmosphere is crackling and humming, a  bubbly hum fades on in. “Submarine Whispers” (6:24) starts underwater and goes deeper, throbbing bass beat with a slow synth pulse, radio static bubbles twitter past. It sounds like we are shooting through the dark oceans, the ride is smooth and miraculous, there is a throbbing engine, there are things we pass through, we keep going steadily, then the feeling is coasting, now just gliding on, coasting in the darkness no reference points, just free fall coasting, designed to operate completely submerged in the sea for long periods.

Starting with a very low deep buzz we begin a long slow fade in, a hum and then a reverberating bass. We have come into “The Sixth Wave” (9:09), the tension builds slowly in the huge chamber we traverse, there is white light and clean clarity, the territory is interesting and moderately energetic. Somewhere high above us soar the phantoms, over the sound of the bubbling boiling fluid and the bass, a beat with the bass and the pulsing electronics, sometimes coasting in darkness, deep under water in the dark thick and dreamy, on and on floating off forever.

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Thierry David was born in Paris in 1955, he practiced the major pieces from the classical repertoire before discovering the freedoms of jazz while still a teenager. He graduated from one of the prestigious business schools in Paris, he accepted a volunteer posting to the cultural service of the French Embassy in Lima, Peru. During this time he played with local musicians and probably began composing. He learned to create his own sound and his own musical world while he first pursued a very different path, which he evidently reconsidered. “Rather than rush into a diplomatic or business career, I attempted the entrance exam for Berklee College of Music in Boston.” He played in piano bars, gave piano lessons, accompanied jazz bands, rock bands, even heavy metal bands, and at odd times he amused himself with composing jingles which could have led to a very different destination.

Six Waves is available on A Train Entertainment / KVOX. [Bandcamp]