Serge Blenner - Miroir de Soi / Mirror of Self - 2004
“Without
music,
life would be a mistake”
[from his website http://www.blenner.com]
intro
“Miroir de Soi” is the successor of “Virtualis”. I described that album as a beautiful romantic album for a much broader audience. And I said that Serge Blenner has found the ultimate mix of electronic and classical textures. “Miroir de Soi” has even more refinement and is up to now his most romantic album. You can find unprecedented beautiful melodies on this album.
line-up
Serge Blenner – samplers, synthesizers, multitrack digital sequencing.
review
You will find ten tracks on this album: “Le miroir”, “Janvier”, “Exlibris”, “Projection”, “Illumination”, “Avril”, “Cercle”, “Estival”, “Les méandres”, “Découverte”, “Les anges” and “Profondeur”. Blenner describes the opening track “Le miroir” as follows; “Le miroir” reflects how oceanic music does sound once a symphonic orchestra has fallen in love with this most reliable of the four elements. Beautiful piano melodies on a bed of orchestral sounds. Sometimes this electronic orchestra swells up to a big climax. In the romantic “Janvier” Blenner makes tasteful use of a virtual guitar sound (listen also to “Estival”). The melody of this track is unprecedentedly nice … it is pure beauty. This also counts for the slow third track “Exlibris”. Only for the first three tracks, you have to buy this album if you like electronic music with lots of melody and beauty. But I will say it once more; Serge Blenner’s music absolutely doesn’t sound electronic!
But there is more on this album. In the cheerful “Projection” the orchestra swings sometimes. “Illumination” is a dark and menacing orchestral piece. In this track Blenner shows us once more he is a master in electronic orchestration. Memories of the symphonies of Stravinsky and Shostakovich are flashing through my mind. “Les méandres” with its melancholy mood has nice cello and harp sounds. The compelling track “Découverte” has again one of those great melodies. The album closes with the linked compositions “Les anges” (great strings) and “Profondeur”, the latter includes a short poem in … German.
conclusion
With “Miroir de Soi” Serge Blenner released again a beautiful album full of warm, romantic and classical electronic music. Like on “Virtualis” you find different atmospheres and electronic textures on “Miroir de soi”, all delicately arranged. If you like the romantic and melodic side of electronic music I can recommend this album to you. And the electronic orchestrations of this unique composer are amazing.