Llumen – Polygon Heart (Album – Alfa Matrix)
Genre/Influences: Minimal-Electro, Future-Pop, IDM, Cinematographic-EBM.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Four years after the successful debut album “The Memory Institute”, Pieter Coussement strikes back with a new opus. The Belgian solo-artist released this work after some serious health problems and introduced the new work by the EP “The Dark In Her Eyes”.
Content: “Polygon Heart” features 10 songs, which are mixing different influences. It’s hard to define the sound of the new Llumen-album as it rapidly appears to be a dense osmosis between different influences. I experienced the album as an offspring between Haujobb (for the great sphere hanging over the work), Apoptygma Berzerk (for the mix of Electro-Pop and EBM elements) and Diorama (for the mood and the structure of some choruses). In the end Llumen brings something you can’t really compare to.
+ + + : The songs have been meticulously built up, and reveal a more accessible approach. The songs are more danceable and in a way more ‘Pop’-driven. The work has been achieved with subtle arrangements and you clearly can hear Coussement has a nose for details and unique sound treatments. It might reveal some perfectionism, which comes through in nearly every single song. The second part of the work features several sonic climaxes, but the first part also reveals a few cool surprises. There’s the already familiar “The Dark In Her Eyes”, but also the opening song and the more EBM-like “Lifeline”. A last and essential element I want to mention is that Pieter Coussement sounds more comfortable with the vocals.
– – – : I can’t say that this work has any minus points although I’m not that fond of the somewhat cheaper Trance-Techno lead running through “The Path That Leads Me Home” (also known from the previous EP).
Conclusion: “Polygon Heart” confirms the strong potential of this Belgian artist, who definitely belongs to a restricted number of visionary and intelligent Electro composers.
Best songs: “The Dark In Her Eyes”, “Like My Pain”, “My Heart Inside Your Hands”, “The Scars I Made”, “Lifeline”, “All things Broken”, “That Path Leads Me Home”.
Rate: 9.
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