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Michel Huygen continues with vigor across the years on the long arc of a profound sonic adventure. From the questing Electronic Musician of the legendary Neuronium, beautiful forms do flow. The album Lysergic Dream (76'38") is too gorgeous not to be alluring. In a chemically induced cosmic current, it stills the conflicting energies of the mind - putting something in there to glimmer gold against the gloom. Lysergic Dream gives a good feeling to the ear, when it is not diving down into churning black emptiness. From this momentary dark stillness, the music of the storm lurks in grim recesses. Feeling alone at the edge, towering chords do howl. But the seven tracks on this album mainly present beautiful arrangements of heroic strings and choirs, as well as lonely synthesizer lead lines reassured by soaring solo female vocals. The energy level of Lysergic Dream remains that of an adagio, that is until the sequencer gets switched on - which transports us ahead at great warp. Floating above whatever world he is mapping, Huygen's lithe fingers yield great treasures from the keyboard. Filled with all the voices of The Universe, low murmuring synthesizers sigh. In sly whisperings of velvet electronic tones a soft strain unfolds. Even in this altered state the mind's light cannot be dimmed. Melting melodies, so smooth, sweet and silvery weave, wind and wander to break the heartstrings. Chiming spheres go octaves deep, in clear, liquid slow echo and quiver - dissolving into ecstasies as they surge to the silent horizon. In the highest notes appears the measured heart-space, where we should feel laid asleep in flowers. Maybe with this Lysergic Dream, it does not matter who this music is from, but only who it is to. Huygen does have greatness in his soul, but it is we who must embark into the outlying, empty spaces - into which our imaginations venture. We hold in our being the memory of his music, as it was when we first received it. In complete cadences, it tells us that what we know inside is true.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 31 August 2017 |
