A Red Zenith (2016)

by Nord

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Reverberations from the Past (2024), Cosmic fantasy (2023), Zodiac (2022), Celestial (2022), Origins (2022), Dystopia (2021), Pictures From a Distorted Mirror (2021), Beyond Gravity (2020), and 36 more. , and , .

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1.	Mystique Water 07:49		buy track
2.	The Lost Oasis 09:19		buy track
3.	A Red Zenith 09:47		buy track
4.	Dunes 11:59		buy track
5.	Seconds Before Midnight Remix - bonus track 11:50	info	buy track

about

This is an album recorded in 2015 during the sessions for Sequenced Feelings and Bells of the Sun and the mixing and mastering process was delayed because of other projects like Hydra, Mare Nubium and Vortex. It's now the time to release this "older" album too.

Fortunately the release of this album coincides with the Summer Solstice of 2016, when the Sun is on the Zenith - on his highest point on the sky.

A Red Zenith includes a bonus track too - Seconds Before Midnight -, that was first released at Kontinuum Productions on a compilation album of the music of Alba Ecstasy, Nord, Frederich Schuller and Andreas Meyer. However this version of Seconds Before Midnight is slightly different from the version released at Kontinuum Productions. Enjoy the feelings that result from this music.

About this album in Synthsequences.blogspot:

"“A Red Zenith is a fair album which will please before all the fans of Nord. I had a great time but I don't believe it's a way to start the discovering of Nord's universe”

1 Mystique Water 7:49
2 The Lost Oasis 9:19
3 A Red Zenith 9:47
4 Dunes 11:59
5 Seconds Before Midnight Remix 11:50 (Bonus Track)
Nord Music (DDL 50:47) ***
(Roumanian and Berlin School)

I say to myself that Sztakics István Attila does not sleep! The man has to spend all of his time behind keyboards, behind keys. Imagine! “A Red Zenith” was written in 2015 while Nord delivered some 4 albums. And considering the quality of his compositions, it's completely justifiable to ask such a question. Does he sleep? Well, we have to think so! Not that “A Red Zenith” is not good. There are good moments and others which are hollow. It's an album which is just a little bit uneven with 5 titles all very disconnected one from the other and among which some plunge us into the other hillside of EM; the one which is anti-music where everything justifies itself for some and which is condemn for others. Let's have a closer look ...
A distant wave is pairing with a rather acute synthesized song. This duet of disparate harmonies awakens a heavy line of sequences which deeply pulses, raising a linear pounding rhythm among which the shadows which get loose from it are running away in a series of aggressive kicks. Simple and effective, "Mystique Water" is in the pure Nord tradition with its minimalist rhythm where is grafted a sonic crowd of elements all so attractive for the sense of hearing than each other. The tears of synth are incredibly touching with their envelopes of mist and the arrangements which lull them tone up their emotional scale of these harmonies. The game of sequences and electronic percussions is in the tone by freeing, for sequences, tones always also near the organic world. In each of his album, Nord accustomed us to a very solid title. Here it's "The Lost Oasis". A title which is in the purest Berlin School tradition with an introduction flooded of a very Arabian ethereal atmosphere. A small concert of carillons rings among winds of Azure. Symphonic strings cry under the impulses of a bass line with a very furtive approach there. And a superb melody played on piano floods these atmospheres which are very near the repertoire of the unique Bernd Kistenmacher at the same time as the percussions fall to forge a slower structure than heavy. These notes of piano draw a plan which flirts with the improvisation, even if those rainy tear drops a la Rider in the Storm from The Doors can seem to us so near, under the discreet thunders of a bass drum. One would say a mix of Pink Floyd and The Doors wrapped in those dramatic arrangements of Bernd Kistenmacher. It's very good and it's getting better when Sztakics István Attila adds some pretty nice lines of flutes. A flute which is also very present on the pounding beat, which is rather ambient, of the title-track which dominates its floating moods at around the 6th minute to offer a good mid-tempo. Synths are very present and inject lines of harmonies into rather contrasting tints. Ringings of sound waves open the spatiotemporal lane of "Dunes". Other sound waves ripple such as the caresses of ophidian on some hot sand while that pulsating sequences sharpen their acidified tones. This intro dissolves in a basin of rippling waves where perfumes of Pink Floyd's Rick Wright stigmatize the rather convoluted atmospheres of "Dunes". The multiple chants of synths roll like a synthesized Mass where the choirs shouts in order to invent some spectral harmonies. And little by little, the curtain of iridescent ambiences dissolves to give way to a down-tempo on which it is necessary to imagine very languorous and where all the elements get entangled in a mace of waves which derives with its synthesized caresses more lascivious than lively. An interesting compilation that I chronicled at the beginning of the year was one of Kontinuum Productions where was nesting the track Seconds Before Midnight, the first title that I heard from Nord. The Rumanian synthesist offers us here a remixes which gives a more lively tint with a more percussive approach which hides a little the synths and the orchestral effects. The industrial perfume of Klaus Schulze there is present just as much but in a more realistic envelope of his Dig It era. I prefer this version that Nord retrieves in his catalog. And still I believe that before all that “A Red Zenith” is an album much more indicated to his fans than to a larger audience. In fact, I don't believe that it's the best way to discover Nord, although "Mystique Water" is very beautiful. There are average moments, like "Dunes" and the title-track as there are also very good moments. Yes, the fans of Nord are going to like this. Me? I heard better things from this friendly Rumanian musician who absolutely has to find the way to sleep a little... But I had a very pleasant time!
Sylvain Lupari (August 7th, 2016)
gutsofdarkness.com & synthsequences.blogspot.ca"

credits

released June 21, 2016

Music composed, performed and recorded by Nord.
Artwork by Főcze Hunor.

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about

Nord Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania

Nord is a musician on synthesizers, sequencers and samplers, midi keyboards & theremin.
Electronic music composer

Rock Bands:
Tempest between 1991 - 1993,
Semaphore between 1993 - present.
Mercedes Band 2006 - 2014.

Solo electronic music projects
Roland N project 1994-1995
Nord project 2000 - present

Colaborations: Alba Ecstasy & Nord

Winer of the 11th place of SCHALLWELLE AWARD 2018. ... more

nordmusic.ro

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