I come back to an album that was released in 2021 but is only available now on streaming sites. This is the 3rd album of the 'Syrinx Call' project of the German 'Volker Kuinke' who, accompanied by 'Jens Lueck' and 'Isgaard' (see their project 'Single Celled Organism'), has been released in 2018 the album 'The Moon on a Stick '. 'Mirrorneuron' tells the story of an Artificial Intelligence named Kai, who develops a function which enables him to feel empathy on his way through a severe existential crisis after encountering contradictions and a dissonance between theory and practice. Psychotherapist Mara has to put the humanoid robot back on track again, but contrary to all expectations, Kai manages to stir something in her. This ability stems from mirror neurons, nerve cells in our brains which turn us humans into empathic beings.
The menu of this album is well filled since we have at our disposal 14 titles for 1 hour of listening and we find the artist with multiple flutes who takes us on a magnificent progressive symphonic journey, sometimes light and lively, sometimes melancholic and soothing. From the start, with 'Bit By Bit', the flute sets the tone with a first airy title whose beautiful melody delicately tickles our senses, then, 'Deceptive Illusion' continues to enchant us with an angelic vocal performance by Isgaard' and 'Doris Packbiers'. Beginning practically on the same theme as its predecessor but in a much slower tempo, 'The Arctic Will Die' raises the emotional slider again with a melody filled with poetry which brings out a remarkable emotion thanks in particular to the sublime interpretation of 'Jens Lueck' and celestial choirs and it's the same peaceful climate that we find in the following title 'Breakdown'. With 'Perfect Shine', the melodic theme makes me think of the delicate style of 'Renaissance' especially since the vocal performance of the two singers is magnificent. The suite offers us the two very beautiful pastoral instrumentals 'Merging Influences' and 'Mirrorneuron' always led by the flute of 'Volker Kuinke', and parade titles all as endearing as each other with beautiful vocals on 'Big Data' , the melancholic 'Weird Resonance' with beautiful vocal harmonies and a magnificent finale with a 'Gilmourian' guitar solo, the very beautiful moving comma 'One Step Beyond' which would not have gone wrong in an album by 'Roger Waters ', the soothing 'I'm Gonna Buy Some Flowers' on which we completely surrender to the celestial vocalizations, 'Sweetness' which admirably combines the sweetness of Isgaard's singing with that of Volker's flute, the album ending with the melodic gem 'Fill The Silence' and the very (too!) short 'Silent Echoes' in a 'Floydian' atmosphere.
In summary, 'Volker Kuinke', surrounded by quality artists, once again shows all his talent as a composer to give us a wonderful listening time and offer us a wonderful soothing and relaxing journey filled with poetry which makes 'Mirrorneuron' an album which should join the ideal collection of all lovers of symphonic progressive... | |
