Tempustry - "Le Voyage Du Temps"
(Time Voyage Music 2005, TVM007)
Tempustry - "Le Voyage Du Temps"
(Time Voyage Music 2005, TVM007)
From Aural Innovations #32 (November 2005)
Tempustry is Allen Brunelle's solo project apart from his occasional duties as drummer for Architectural Metaphor and Dark Aether Project, and though the music on Le Voyage du Temps has some affinities with the former, most of the songs veer far closer to Jean-Michel Jarre/Michael Garrison territory. With a penchant for symphonic bombast and an obsession with portamento-drenched monophonic synth leads, much of Le Voyage plays out like clockwork, with ultra clean production, sparkling textures, and nouveu romantic aspirations of cosmic grandeur. Pieces like "Space Race," "Spindrift," and "Skyward," while nicely programmed and artfully structured, simply recapitulate the conventional synth wizard magic invoked by numerous Schulze apprentices (including Jarre himself, to some degree) since the late 70s. To Brunelle's credit, his use of drum machines adds a much needed rhythmic element to what has become a nearly homogenized plug-in genre of music. The aptly titled "Driven," for instance, propels the listener across the mechanized autobahn of early Kraftwerk, with a nod to the digital highways explored by such 90s speedfreaks as 808 State, Orbital and Eat Static. For connoisseurs of electronica and similar synth-based genres, Le Voyage has the cardinal virtue of doing it all right - and pretty much right by the book when it comes to post-Schulze space music design. Which is to say, if you like the past masters and grand gurus of kosmische musik, you'll like Tempustry's Le Voyage du Temps.
For more information you can visit the Time Voyage Music web site at: http://www.timevoyagemusic.com.
Email at: allenbrunelle@timevoyagemusic.com.
Reviewed by Charles Van de Kree