CYBERSPACE

Second half of the 90's was pretty busy for Fritsch, as he became a teacher of Electronic Music at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, while starting his Ph.D in Computer Music.Three among his compositions were included in a compilation that sold thousands of copies over Brazil, while in 1999 he found the Eletroacoustic Music Lab, a laboratory for searchers of Electronic Music, filled with music software, electronic devices and computers.He traveled to the USA to perform with Apocalypse at ProgDay 99', Rock Symphony released this performance on CD in 2000.Fritsch'es releases appear to go parallel ways with his regular band, his next work ''Cybespace'' was also released in 2000 on Rock Symphony.

This one maybe opens with a very JEAN-MICHEL JARRE-like piece of quirky Electronic Music, the title track of the album, but the following majority enters the realms of VANGELIS, albeit in a less professional production, meeting the standards of Symphonic Electronic Music, based on grandiose orchestrations, spacey layers, some choirs and a very pompous atmosphere.As already proposed in his previous albums, a couple of tracks are flirting with New Age, definitely the cheapest productions of the album and the ones hurting its consistency, suffering from minimalistic keyboard soundscapes and unbearable flute samplers.I think Eloy's highest points come on the symphonic moments of the album, like ''Symphony of peace'', beautiful work on ethereal synthesizers and pretty natural-sounding harps, exploring different moods and starting from a romantic delivery to end up in a serious bombastic profile.There are still some references to Apocalypse' music, for example ''Beyond The ocean waves'' features some programmed drums and electric guitars in a very Neo Prog-like approach meeting the spacey keyboards of Fritsch.The 11-min. ''Lake Of peace'' is propably the highlight in here, full of multi-layered synthesizers, cinematic territories, Classical variations and New Age lifts.

A serious and talented composer of the recent era.Maybe his works lack the ultimate budget and thus the benefits of a better production, but the music is always inspired and highly atmospheric, you'll love this one if you're deep into Electronic, trippy listenings.Recommended.