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Reviews

Tales — Pictures of Asia
(Somewhere in Time SIT9601, 1996, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 1997-10-01

Pictures of Asia Cover art

Tales is the alias of French electronic composer Jean-Luc Hervé Berthelot. With Pictures of Asia, he takes the listener on an imaginary cinematic tour of Asia, up the Ganges river, to the snow capped peaks of Tibet, through the shadow of Mount Fuji, to the ancient temple at Tanah Lot. This eastward looking electronic odyssey begins with "The Silk Road," opening with a repetitive march with variations that reminds this writer of the opening moments of Magma's "MDK"; synth melodies come and fade in numerous different voicings while the pulsating rhythm drones on below. On other tracks, one might be reminded of the Oasis / Full Moon Story period of Kitaro's work, although Berthelot's approach is far more organic and wholesome, and lacks that highly polished synthetic perfection that was trademark Kitaro. Berthelot applies some very real sounding sax samples over the looping rhythms on "Yeti's Theme," in fact samples of all types are used throughout the album to superb effect. The ten tracks herein switch off between the more rhythmic and melodic pieces and those which are more meditative in nature. "Indonesia Postcard One" is one of the latter, a shimmering multi-layered introspective exploration that would be just as much at home on a Popol Vuh album. Overall, this is one of the most engaging electronic based efforts in recent memory, and although it was apparently released at the tail end of '96, don't be surprised if it turns up on this writer's best of '97 list.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 13, 1996 releases

Related artist(s): Jean-Luc Hervé Berthelot / Tales

 

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