Aes Dana - Leylines

Vincent Villuis a.k.a. Aes Dana, also half of the H.U.V.A. Network duo, is a down tempo professional with a 16 year old experience on his back. Since his teenage year he participated in several industrial/coldwave bands and afterwards turned to sampling and layering of digitally transmuted acoustic sounds. Over the years, working as one of the owners of Ultimae Records he has released four solo albums and his tracks were featured on around forty compilations. This should serve as a proof that we are in for a great melancholic joyride. Hop on!

As the heart beat starts beating, the shy strings and the drowsy melancholic background pads herald all the emotions that we have to share, along with the memories of childhood amusement, the good and the bad feelings that we all have to endeavor in our hearts through our life time (T1). The heavy and deep bass with the sub driven kick gives me goose bumps as the background distant flute forms the drive and passion of this Bam (T2). This is Vincent's signature. It all starts from a single colored reverbed sound and slowly forms hypnotic patterns with a dub like structure rich in flavor, dark and atmospheric, infectious and constantly listenable. The intelligent dance music influence is scented but with a bit of modern touches- shaking echo, sound overlays, tricked up percussion with a pinch of crunchy distortion (T4). In the middle of this album with Adonaï (god in Hebrew, T5) things start to get more repetitive. The pitch dark bass pattern with static percussion takes the drive in its own hands making it more moist and atmospheric as the ghostly fabricated effects slide through our ears, finishing with an experimental pitched way down what used to be an electro synth. The rhythmic strips are laid down over a simple melodic line making a beatless piece of atmospherics to my liking, taking an infinity to develop and when it does it sounds like Liquid Soul on opiates, although may not be the best for the peak time (T6). Cut up, chopped and twisted sorrow vocals is a way that makes a tribute to the old school trance doctrine (T7). We are nearing the end of Leylines and the atmospheric elements are gradually hammered in slowing the down tempo hype and cultural ubiquity with a movie like deep space feeling, mere remnants of the Big Bang after which life began and evolved into something far beyond our imagination.

Recomendation:  As the alignments of the ancient sites, so is this album is intended to strengthen the human lay lines, the bonds that we tend to forget over the time passed with our technological appliances. This is a serious album, made in its own time and space, released to the public when the time was right. I would recommend this to everyone who is brave enough to understand it. The artwork is a simple way of showing us that everybody needs a helping hand in rough times, no matter the color, and prejudices, hence it's the same hand as on the other side.