WRIGHT, DAVID - BEYOND THE AIRWAVES-VOLUME 1 (2014 ALBUM)

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Studio reworks of recordings made on tour between 2013 & 2014 and it’s a gorgeous mix of spacey atmospheric tracks & lush melodic/rhythmic grooves!

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For the vast majority of regular CDS Towers’ customers, UK synth veteran David Wright needs absolutely no introduction! Originally intended as a Double CD Set (‘Volume 2’ will now be released in early 2015) ‘Beyond The Airwaves-Volume 1’ is his 25th solo release and it also marks 25 years since his first release.

‘Beyond The Airwaves-Volume 1’ is a pulsating voyage into cosmic electronic music. The twelve interlinked tracks are actually four long pieces that ebb and flow with commanding themes and a sweeping grandeur. The music covers a variety of electronic styles with strong rhythms and sequences underpinning a multitude of layers and lush melodic passages that are rich with drama, and it has to be said, with some fantastic keyboard solos along the way from the UK’s master of melody!

‘Beyond The Airwaves-Volume 1’ contains forty-eight minutes of new music plus an epic thirty minute re-imagining of his classic ‘Walking With Ghosts’ suite from the album of the same name and what is arguably Wright’s finest hour as a synth music composer.
The music is taken from concerts recorded in the USA and Europe in 2012 and 2013, all reworked and added to afterwards in the studio – and to all intents and purposes you would never know these were ‘live’ performances. The idea was to combine the spontaneity of the concert recordings with the more disciplined and creative studio approach to present a blend of both and hopefully, something a little different – and it certainly has worked for me – big time!
The first half of the disc is more reflective, moody and spacey, with layering and cosmic atmospherics with a sprinkling of sequencing and rhythms taking centre stage over solid melody, which is not the norm for a David Wright album by any means, but its great to hear a slightly different side to his music.
The 2nd half is pure David Wright in the styles we are more familiar with and all know and love him for – huge melodic keyboard runs seas of string and choral synthesizers flowing majestically over infectious, hypnotic rhythms.

‘Drifting In’ is all “drifting” cosmic effects and pleasant enough but with no solid structure and quickly cross-fades into…‘Gravity Waves’ brings in a more melodic approach with a simple yet effective melody line set over laid-back rhythms, and it’s more about improvising with the melody line in a simple setting rather than the usual DW ways of building, developing and constantly adding new layers to the melody line to build into a huge flowing groove… but there’s plenty of that to come later!
‘ISEE3’ opens with another simple but strong melody line with very little rhythmic content beside it, then a fine layer of heavenly choir sounds takes us into space one more where the melody returns, this time with heavier rhythmic content than before, and then seamlessly flows into…
‘Forward Motion’ and more familiar DW territory with the strong upfront melody line and a rhythmic base balanced into more equal measures, and while there are subtle changes here and there the flow is pretty constant until the final two minutes brings in a mist of cosmic string synths and distant choral effects, and, there are some Mellotron sounds coming through as well.
‘Strange Inventions’ is almost mechanical in it’s approach with a slow meandering piano melody sitting on top of an equally slow rhythm set over a bed of distant choral and string effects. Improvising with the piano melody Wright captures some emotive moments, and then at the halfway mark the whole atmosphere changes to one of pure electronica with high-register synths emerging through a wall of cosmic mists, developing the track into a beautiful slice of melodic space music featuring some scattered rhythmic structures.
‘Dream FM’ brings the closing rhythmic structure of the last track through to this one, and brings in a simple, yet very effective keyboard melody line. There are some great sound effects and sequencing going on as the track starts to build a flowing groove. Heavenly choral sounds and other layers give added power and colour to the constantly developing theme – This is Space Music with teeth!
After a final half-minute of cosmic effects ‘Stratos’ kicks in with a driving sequencer and an aggressive, almost Shreeve-like synth melody line, then after just a minute a Mellotron-like string melody blasts in and takes over the lead alongside a grooving rhythm. More synth lead sounds come in here and there, but the recurring Mellotron-like theme keeps racing back in to take the lead every so often, and it’s to thrilling effect as Wright really starts to get into it and the track takes off.
‘Penumbra’ heralds the arrival of the re-working of the four-part suite that is: ‘Walking With Ghosts’ and it’s not long before the goose bumps are rising on your arms to the sounds of one of Wright’s most effective echoed melodic motifs. This track is quite gentle as the synth bends and twists around a central melodic core.
‘The Gift’ kicks of a wonderful galloping rhythmic groove with rippling synth textures rolling all around the stereo soundstage. One soaring melody line after another flows into the hypnontic pool of sounds right up to the moment when ‘Acheron’ comes in with a newly created cosmic atmosphere overlaid by a similar melody line.
‘Cest la Vie’ closes the ‘Walking With Ghosts’ suite with a haunting new melody line set over a pulsating rhythmic beat, and right from the start it’s a case of one infectious synth sound after another, and all manner of multi melodies and counter melodies as the flowing groove builds and builds for just over eight minutes of that style of majestic synth music that just gets your body beats going before eventually closing in a climactic crash of sound and slips straight into… ‘Partial Eclipse’ where sombre, almost Mellotron-like strings swell over a slow sequenced rhythm, with a beautiful, evocative, almost Vangelis-like synth/piano melody ending this thoroughly enjoyable cosmic adventure is real style.

Also available in this series:
BEYOND THE AIRWAVES-VOLUME 2 (2015 Album) CD - Stock # 1773398

‘Beyond The Airwaves-Volume 1’ was released on 5th September 2014.

DAVID WRIGHT: BEYOND THE AIRWAVES-VOLUME 1 Track List:

01. Drifting In (3:57)
02. Gravity Waves (7:02)
03. ISEE3 (2:36)
04. Forward Motion (8:00)
05. Strange Inventions (9:09)
06. Dream FM (9:41)
07. Stratos (6:53)
08. Penumbra (5:06)
09. The Gift (5:56)
10. Acheron (5:26)
11. Cest la Vie (8:19)
12. Partial Eclipse (5:41)

TPT - 77:48