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Paul Ellis / Per Thomhav — Orpheus
(Groove Unlimited no#, 2024, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-12-27

Orpheus Cover art

Beginning in the early-90s, first with his cassette release Secret Fire and later with his three-piece synthesizer band Dweller at the Threshold, Paul Ellis has released around three dozen albums in all the years since, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with others, on a number of different labels — Eurock, Hypnos, Groove Unlimited, Spotted Peccary, Lotuspike, and even several self-released titles, many of which we have covered here at Exposé. Danish composer and synthesist Per Thomhav is better known by his chosen alias Synth Replicants, with over a dozen releases to date, most self-released as Bandcamp downloads. Both Ellis and Thomhav are strongly influenced by the European and Berlin School of electronic musicians like Jean Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Neuronium and others, which should provide a good idea as to where Orpheus will be taking the listener. The seven tracks at hand are adventurous and bristling with energy, where melody and rhythms mix freely with equal parts floating ambient and astral dreamscapes, in a stirring complex where constant evolution and shifting are the only constants. The title track opens the set in a manner that one might expect given Ellis’ and Thomhav’s collective background — dreamy waves of color set against bouncy percussive restlessness and dynamic muscularity. It’s the second cut, “Bring Eurydice Back,” that evokes dreamy mysterious visions and dramatic emotional interest all throughout its nine minute duration. Other standouts include the near 30-minute “Leviathan” that closes the set, an extended piece that encompasses many of the duo’s influences, “The Shattered Lyre” with its warm circulating melodies and majestic grandeur, and the brisk and driving movements of “The Phantom Symphony” will leave its pulses etched in your consciousness as it proceeds onward to a ten-minute conclusion. Throughout Orpheus, the adventurous listener will be treated to an ever-changing world of sonic invention far from the expected path.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Paul Ellis, Per Thomhav (Synth Replicants)

More info
http://paulellisperthomhav.bandcamp.com/album/orpheus

 

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