LAMBWOOL

"For All That We Have Lost" was released in March 2021 under the moniker of a fantastic tag Cyril LAURENT (aka LAMBWOOL) & Nicolas DICK following their first collaboration work "Post" that was out seven years ago. It could not easily be imagined what touch and texture can be created in this operation by the combination of Cyril - a bit dark and tragic inspiring ambient - and Nicolas - delightful, brilliant soundscape especially in the previous opus "Une Belle Journée". But you can understand such a fascinating combo just when you listen to this album. Synchronization of darkness and delightfulness is well balanced and well matured, awesome.

This delicate, sensitive feeling can be in front of us from the beginning of the first titled track. The first synthesizer- oriented storytelling-like attack hits us brilliantly. Beautiful ambient suggestions like the quiet sea under the cloudy sky is superbly relaxing. Slightly dim, fuzzy, distorted sound streams should not be minimalized at all. It sounds like something safe and sound under such a tough situation. Heartwarming designation would come from Nicolas' delight. On the contrary, the following stuff "Dust Of Freedom" is rough, quirky, but incredibly impressive. Discordant, dissolved, dissonant melody lines launched by twin synthesizers (maybe) squeeze our inner mind gradually but comfortably. Such a drastic melodic flavour might be thrown like a Frisbee by Cyril, I imagine. The latter phase sounds pretty dramatic and tragic. Very magnificent one really. "Frozen Time" is kinda desert one. There are some fragile moments like cold thin ice amongst dynamic development ... this can be mentioned as a crystallization of fragility, coolness, strength, and energy, which will call the power for us nowadays. In the epilogue "Faceless People" with a horrible title could be produced with their sadness in the inorganic, potential-less world. The shortest creation has definite plaintiveness and downheartedness, that would give us sorta trial ground going on for a while.

This album reminds us of a motive for various paths to the future. The way we walk cannot be imagined easily, but who cares? It's good for us to enjoy the current mood fully.

Deep dream like dronescapes flowing through sky level highs and expansive earthly widths.

Lambwool & Nicholas Dick- "POST", 2014.

This release shamelessly shows out how high Lambwool's music composition talents are evolving. Maybe the addition of well known Nicolas DICK (Kill The Thrill/ Stream of Consciousness) atmospheric guitar adds up an electric/earthly touch, enhancing the perfect structuring of each track and their explosive outbursts. (Featuring also Bertrand Schacre / additional guitars on "Factories", track 5).

A seven track release in the electronic music tenor of the Fripp & Eno's, or better yet, Fayman & Fripp's experimental cosmic music recordings, to place it somewhere in the collective progressive electronic minds, but only as a reference in its music-geographical location.

Each track is increasingly hypnotic but above all they are full spirited, energetic and endlessly creative. Beautiful without vanity, deep and spiritual to the core in any shade it comes.

Each track travels its own route and as the perfect vacation, each place outdoes the other and so on, until you just want to start the whole trip again, from the beginning.

Flawless!

*****5 -FULL- PA stars.

Give yourself some adventurous pleasure!

As I mentioned in my previous Lambwool review, this musician has a knack for symphonic structures as for the orchestral sound. In the hands of less creative musicians this whims become over pretentious and insignificant, but in the hands of electronic music composers Cyril Laurent aka Lambwool this possibilities grow accordingly to his talent and means of expression.

Let me dig a little bit on the symphonic and orchestal terms. By symphonic , I do mean the classic music structures and partitions and by orchestral I mean the multiple arrangement of instruments but in Cyril Laurent's electronic world these varied instruments also include electronic sounds, effects, field-recordings, piano & synths. That mentioned, let me continue my review.

MONO, 2009,compresses Lambwool's music composition possible highlights into two single tracks, therefore reducing both pieces to their brighter and perfect pitch flow and progression. No wastelands nor fillers, both pieces are a constant fluctuation of creativity both in rhythm and melody. And there exactly lies the real deal about this release, its music composition moves in that kind of level where mere composers turn into magicians.

Lambwool's electronic dronescaping musical language is friendly (which does not mean sugarly),it is rich yet constantly experimental even obscure at times and it is intelligent as it is attractive thus enticing. His "orchestral" arrangements work wonders in their structuring, counterpoints and moods, as his perfect distance of over doing them.

The string like sections in their epic depictions may turn a bit too passionate, but not the point of becoming cliches, although quiet close, once or twice, which is in fact the only reason I am not rating it with the 5 stars medal, besides that this is a must in any Progressive Electronic collection.

****4.6 PA stars.

Contemporary classical music suffers of many founded and unfounded prejudices. Over indulgent compositions composed for musicians solely, overly sweet transvestites of classical forms and so on...

Lambwool's works are close to contemporary classical forms as they of course blend in with the synthetic spaces the electronics bring on.

I have had the fortune (underline fortune) of listening to some of Lambwool's releases included here in PA, and by choice I will start with his second work "...AND THE ANGEL IS GONE", 2008, as it appears here in PA.

As one will expect with an early release his musical structures, as his music composition, are yet to be polished, refined, constructed, deconstructed and then restructured, as his posterior works clearly show. Nevertheless, for starters, Lambwool's standards are quiet high.

There is drama, there are subtle encounters with "world music", without the Pop that parasites usually around it, there are deep and intriguing electronic environments, as the main melody structures revolve around the before mentioned contemporary classic and mere "classical" music influences. The fact that this release is fractioned into 7 independent tracks, enriches the aural experience, as it also enhances the level of Lambwool's music composition talent.

There are some "buts" here and there. The over dramatic melody lines are not my cup of tea, but if anything, they actually do not last that long and are not over the top pretentious.

Anyway! A highly surprising, exciting and unique Progressive ELECTRONIC musical language which in fact will develop and evolve in future works, but as such better than any overrated P.E. musician here in P.A.

Well, I am thankful to have encountered this musician through P.A. as it is another great example that there is, in fact, life in the so mentioned Berlin/West Coast electronic music schools (or as you foreigners understand as Tangerine Dream).

***3.5 PA stars.

"Mono" is not a monotone.

LAMBWOOL's "Mono" released in 2009 is a conceptual album including two long tracks (Part 1 & 2) maybe for representing monotonous atmosphere just like the monotonous sleeve pic. But the content cannot be mentioned simply as above.

From just the beginning of the first track Part 1, I cannot avoid feeling theatrical improvement and continuous beauty brought up all of a sudden. Exactly more monotonous and more of fragility than his debut shot can be heard via this stuff, but not tiresome (of course!) ... beneath the monotonous sea, ambient musical therapy regulated with theoretical method for melody lines. Dramatic, suggestive and addictive sound cries here and there, based upon wavy freak-out drone background. Upon another moment, looks like I should swim in a cool lake surfaced by clear blue ice. The musical lake, veiled in a mysterious oxygenic water where an embryo lives safe and sound, has some capacity for every inner mind.

Part 2 sounds like a lullaby featuring heartwarming mother's touches and hallucinogenic movements. There are vacant moments filled with meaningful sound elements ... and amazingly every little vacancy should be a threshold into the next tonic occasion. As if he might make a strong resistance against an invisible wall, a mass of electronic bullets created via his synthesizer attack and hit against transparency. And ultimately the last 5 minute phrase is a dramatic epilogue containing a beautiful graceful melody trip that can be called as such an ambient Fantasia.

As a result, I cannot help considering that every electronic monotone would assemble together towards a music elixir otherwise.

Amazing he has created such a rich, prolific landscape with inorganic, monotonous sound unification. His brilliant watery sound maze may get to be something like a hallucinogenic agent for our brain, I suppose.

Exactly just the beginning of the first track "Sylvhydres" excretes magnificent weirdness, that squeezes a large expectation into our memory. Can feel confident in his brilliance occasionally via theatrical, kaleidoscopic electronic development. In the following "Wake" (and one of my faves), gorgeous classical strings movements seasoned with downtempo suppressive percussion mysteriously via ears stimulate our inner mind. This phenomenon notifies us he has been enormously influenced by classical scene, but construct his original sound space not only with the scene but with various musical genres. In "On The Ceiling" massively percussive footsteps sound like a sutra cadence background in a religious rite, that drives us into psychological sublimation and some danceable phrases give us heartwarming palpitation. Exactly like the title, "Fragile" is really drenched in wet, tough auditory fragility blended with tragic strings or serious metallographic vibrations. A dark tribalism filled with floating flowery freakout flavour is the remarkable characteristic of "To The Marble Temple" as if in a temple or shrine obviously.

In "Stairs" are a bunch of organic organ-based orgasms along with electronic chorus occultism and simple monotonous rigid, rigorous sound edges. Cannot avoid feeling something of human fragility as the previous one. "Past Lives" sounds like a song of the previous life remembered clearly beneath our inner mind ... ethnic percussion should bring us mystic memory back long past. And wondering what the title "When I Was A Hero" means. Guess he had been heroic upon some starless underground scene where atmospheric ambience was launched here there everywhere. On the other hand, "Dahlia" or "Shaman", full of fantastic peculiar solemnness, might be expressed as his condition or his eternal musical target I imagine ... hypnotic repetitive phrases turn around like the guru's words especially in the latter track. The last "Reminiscence" should be blown away like the dead tree drawn upon the sleeve, namely the stereotype for electronic / drone / ambient. What a promising suggestion by him.

A splendid soundscape coloured apparently with over-genre-ish variations, not only drone nor ambient.

Among the major musicians to be signed on the excellent and innovative independent label OPN records, Cyril Laurent (aka Lambwool) figures among the new emblematic musicians of spaced-out synthscaping oddisseys from France. Richfully textured, heart-touchingly melodious and softly moving this latest album entitled Vanish is a beautiful meditative and restful synth-inflected excursion with reminiscence to the best offers in that field of sound experiments, notably from France with artists such as Bernard Xolotl or Didier Bocquet to name a few. If the past releases were surfing on more darkened ambient territories, this new release is an achieving ethereal ambient work with some deliciously evocative, immersive moments as in the magnificent self-title. A piece such as "Twisted" is more turned to ghostly post-industrial enthralling ambiences with deep bass drones, desperate echoing scintillations and detached piano touches. A few ravishing and impressionistic acoustic elements painted by the violin brings to the pieces a sonorous poetical flavour ("Closed door"). Vanish is a brilliantly sentimental, sweetly dream-like electronic ambient work that will unconditionally satisfy fans of the genre. An other delicate, emotionally charged and compelling cinematic ambient walk by this now unmissable project by a key personality of neo-kosmische musik and subtlly expressive drone ambient. Recommended.

Lambwool is the project name of the french multi-instrumentalist and sound sculptor Cyril Laurent. This one man project is among the leading ones published by the independent and innovative label Opn Records (mostly known for covering new and challenging works offered by the French's industrial, post-metal, electronic drone ambient underground scene). Before to had signed materials on Opn, Lambwool published two albums on the now cult but dissolute Divine Comedy Records. In this double album, Cyril Laurent carries on the stylistic path already explored in his previous offers, focusing his interest on infinitely enthralling and moving darkened synthesized chords and deep droney sequences. If his first Opn album entitled Mono appeared to be focused on lengthy synthesized moves in a very spacious-isolationist style, this double album explores more post-industrial schemes within a very addictive, sonically dense atmosphere. Exclusively instrumental and playful, all pieces architecture are organized around majestic cinematic keyboards, electrified guitar motifs and acoustic piano minimalism. What makes Lambwool musical identity rather unique is the original use of evocatively melodious elements next to more psych-acoustic experiments. High class compositions, deeply emotional, cerebrally meditative ambient excursions at its finest. This double album is divided in two chapters, the first is based on new materials around a cohesive sound direction, the second one delivers unreleased pieces taken from unreleased old materials, demo tracks. The least I can say is that the two parts offer absolutely gorgeous and utterly absorbing expressive drone ambient textures. My favorite track remains the self-titled track with its refined, enveloping synthscaping lines. If we except the works of Lecanora, Collapsar (?) very few are the dark space ambient artists who are coming from France.

No doubt that with this little classic double album Lambwoll figures at the top of the list. This one can also ravish fans of earliest Klaus Schulze (Cyborg, Timewind?), dronescaping post-rockin atmospherics of Beneath the Lake, Time Hecker or the spacious timbres of analog synth music designed by Steve Roach among many others.