reviews


Kinetic (Alternative press)

From Belgium's silver records (released via daft) home to the lowlands gutter-acid sounds of unit moebius, ra-x and rude 66, comes a new cd from starfish pool that combines dirty, grinding techno and dark ambient washout. anyone who has swooned over ra-x's distorted hardcore workouts, surgeon's piledriver techno or christoph de babalon's opiate nightmares will be captivated by starfish pool's fusion of these elements. It's a shame if this release remains cd-only, because the beat-oriented tracks here are total stormers, pure propulsive energy aimed dead-on, with shell casings clattering about your feet. Taking off from traditional hard techno, 'process' stands out for its refusal of a four-on-the-floor structure, instead employing an off-killer loop with all the precision of a force inc. floor filler.

(Philip Sherburne)
Alternative press - march 2000


Rituals for the Dying CD (Alternative press)

Starfish Pool (Koen Lybaert, head of the belgian techno label silver) has been making some of the best trance techno in europe for over a decade. But with this new album, he has forged an epic work that surpassas anything else he's done. At 70 minutes (spread over four tracks), Rituals for the dying never ceases to hold interest a rarity among overlong techno full-lenghts. Tracks like "Rituals for the dying 5 AM" have a structural integrity more often heard in the works of minimalist composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich then in the output of most techno producers. But Lybaert's music wouldn't sit well with the "new-music" crowd, because it's too abrasive and propulsive for polite listening environments. That said. Rituals also has moments of soundtrackish grandeur that could grace a David Lean film. With its impressive stylistic range, emotional depth and timbral sophistication. Rituals stands as one of the finest electronic releases of 1999.

(Dave Segal)
Alternative press - November 1999 - No 136


Rituals for the Dying CD (Re:mote Induction)

Rituals For The Dying is the first release on the U-Cover division of Silver Recordings. A 4 track CD following a previous 10" edition. The packaging is simple - the CD in a folded piece of card in a plastic bag. But the imagery of circuitry and brain scans works well with the overall strength of feeling one gets from Rituals For The Dying and its track titles: Rituals For Dying 5am, Liquid For Females, Rituals For Dying 3pm, and Walk On High
With a single distant beat fading in, we enter the Ritual For Dying 5am. The beat is a one-two, back-forth motion, a hollow tone. In its background we have a couple of mild layers - a seesaw bass motion and a suggestion of distortion. With the opening and closing of doors we over-hear dialogue. Which leads us towards the third minute and subtle escalation of the ritual. Layers move forward in a focused streamline fashion, into which a steady, flat beat is added. The suggestion of "ritual" goes beyond the title, with the sound being ritualistic - each step followed as intended - but in a pure urban electronic fashion. From there it is a looping spiral of sound. There is a certain energy in the steady rhythms, but it all seems to pull you in the way. Especially as it streams back down again to a sustained drone, transformation towards 14 minutes. With a tightening focus this the sound of your eyes closing, and the buzz of gentle waves.
That lapping, fluid buzz being the trigger that shifts us into Liquid For Females. The sound is sighing, but grows in intensity with the sub-layers gathering a hum and mild rushing beneath. These layers acting to intensify the effect rather than complicate and divert. The feeling of ritual is still present for me in this piece - but it is a slow motion feeling, kind of like that mind's eye motion or an awakening, perhaps a birthing moment. Those suggestions providing for me the "liquid" and "females" of the title. Past 10 minutes a more solid sound is added and this is the first suggestion of the next phase.
Led to the 11 minute mark we flick forward to the Rituals For Dying 3pm. From the start there is a strong beat presence, which gives a momentarily convincing illusion of being upbeat. Instead there is a feeling that the sound is diffracted - a steady beam of hard techno hits a prism and each component is slowed down to a different degree by the glass and stripped off. 5am started us moving, Liquid took us inside, and 3pm is your memory of an actual event (you can half remember details and they are real intense and it must have been incredible - but time has passed and you are only working on hazy recollections and distant memory). A new sound opens up, a loop of "yeahup", almost a vocal expulsion in this electronic embrace - but it's just a detail, lost in the tightening of the cycle. Progression continues and shifts, a spacier feel, tighter, realer, darker and that "yeahup" sigh passes through the lapping waves and shooting stars. The fluid layers slow down and mellow out, while the beats and measurable motions speed up, almost as though burning up. As with 5am, 3pm is drawn out in a bass tinged tonal layer - with little details keeping the track going for several more minutes.
In a final minimal conclusion, the increased solidity of beats at 22 minutes brings us to the last phase of Rituals For The Dying. Walk On High layers beats, that first skin beat and the hollower shadows. Bass is a background buzz, and tones shift in streaks and echoes. Those streaks enter an increasing foreground with the steady rhythm the constant. Vibrating spirals of air blast through with distorted edges, leading the addition of a pulse beat sensation. Though the main focus returns to the original sounds between 8 and 10 minutes. From there this is the sensation some outside force is interfering with the long drawn out bass tunnelling section, lending occasional pause and interference to the coherence. With the 12th minute we've shifted again - quieter, looping a flutter of bass, peaked by a little rattling sigh. This whole feel, mostly constant, but the underlying structure shifts with the addition and subtraction of elements. With the 19th minute the sound starts to come back up in a gentle pulse-drone manner with an echoing loop over that. The substantially ambient section bringing Rituals For The Dying to a still understated conclusion, that is till that final beat.

(ptr)
(Re:mote Induction)


Rituals for the Dying 10" (Seven)

On this u-cover's first release, Koen Lybaert takes seventy minutes out of your life to show a world filled with technoid rhythms, incredibly dark ambience, and an array of alien experimental directions along the way.
Leaning into a more layered and experimental direction as opposed to previous releases such as �dante's carnival� and �amplified tones,� Lybaert pushes the minimalistic dub to a further level, utilizing trance induced rhythmics with multi-structured percussive elements and scattered effects with an exploration in dark ambient strings.
On the first track, "rituals for dying 5am" , we are sluggishly hypnotized with driving and flanged technoid beats that intensify and are swallowed by various ascending rhythms and abrasive elements. these elements continue to tangle and build to a ferocity which towards the last few minutes of the track is slowly drowned by a dominating dark drone element.
The listener is gradually engulfed by the next track, "liquid for females." On this thick noir track, we drift into very beautiful and introspective string compositions that simply define the term �dark ambience.� The strings rise and decline in powerful atmospheric waves; this is one of my favorite overall tracks from starfish pool, it is simply a masterpiece by itself.
Track three, "rituals for dying 3 pm" leads us into a bouncy subterranean trip that is attacked with a menagerie of swirling aquatic textures, static-charged drones, echoing phases, and a variety of enhanced bubbling beats and percussives. Halfway through we drip into the aquatic textures, rest for a bit while the emerging rhythms regroup once more. these rhythms then are encountered by the warm and derelict envelopes of yet another stage of this trip. The atmospheres become warmer and thicker, almost to the point of suffocation, but track four pulls us deeper into the depths of "walk on high."
Here we encounter a trip into the ritualistic rhythms of a world never existed. Filtered and stuttered drones fly in and out of the building mystical rhythms as they grow heavier. Halfway through, the percussives fade and are slowly engulfed by the heavy drones, slowly and effectively. Rhythms try to emerge again, but only for awhile, until chaotically attacked by convulsive abrasives and creeping obscure drones and subtle phases. Yet another very strong track on this release.
We end this off-world trip wondering where our life has been in the past 70 minutes.

(alan)
(Seven)


Rituals for the Dying 10" (Grooves Magazine)

Koen Lybaert is one of those Belgian producers who's appetite for hard-techno is clearly apparent on this limited 2-track 10". Having recorded with such luminaries as Ritchie Hawtin, Psychic Warriors ov Gaia, Mark Broom and Derrick May to name a few, he has also performed all over the world with his intriguing Starfish Pool logo. "Rituals For The Dying," was a primer for their latest LP "Kinetic," which has been described as a mixture of dark ambient soundscapes with hypnotic drum patterns. Starfish Pool is more than likely to gain more appreciation with a packed dance floor that is ready to absorb the dark and protruding beats emanating from this slab of wax. With an industrial-techno backbone that is reminiscent of the (older) Detroit "sound," one might think that Starfish Pool are trying to recreate that style. However, with Koen's minimal approach, the straight 4x4 beats and harsh sound-structures unfold a new chapter for smooth atmospheric noise. "Rituals For The Dying" is one of the better sides of techno that deserves to be heard.

(Pietro Da Sacco)
(Grooves Magazine)


Remixed CD (Vital Music)

This anticipated release shows the big family (incestious?) that music business sometimes is. Silver Recordings is the label from Starfish Pool, and so he invited a bunch of friends to remix his previous work on his own label. One can argue what a remix could possibly add to the original. Is the band not satisfied with it, or is it showing how many friends we have or is it a promotion in new musical terrain? Certainly not the last, since many of the bands on 'Remixed' stay close to Pool's original. I can't judge wether the first two aspect should be considered. But in any case many of the involved artists add a few tricks or as you will, trademarks of their own. Riou for instance is in his usual lo-fi sampling made, and Unit Moebius is downright minimal techno as usual. And so each takes some elements as bricks for their own house to be built, and techno music presents itself once more as a very open form of music. Unit Moebius and Mark Broom/Dave Hill are my favourites, but overall no real bad tracks included.

(FdW)
(Vital Music)


Remixed 12" (Klublife)

Well you know Starfish Pool are gonna play with your cells in your brain! Now add Mark Broom to the mix and look out...it's a wicked wax cocktail that is sure to split the atom, not to mention your head, on any sound system.

(Jay Thomas)
(Klublife)


Llips. vs Starfish Pool - Sweetwater (Seven)

Coming from mysterious New York artist LLIPS. joined by silver records/u-cover founder Koen Lybaert, this is yet another awesome project on this growing label. This completes the third of the four installments available so far from u-cover.
Always keeping with introspective ambient themes, �Sweetwater� completes more stages of heart-felt emotions and sentimental environments. From my knowledge, LLips. provides all the acoustical guitar environments and soundscapes while Koen Lybaert accents and complements the rifts with subtle synthetics sounds of nature and alluringly warm and depressive stringscapes.
Soft underwater railway passages are entangled with acoustic pictures of autumn. Enlightening soft swelling string movements free the mind to wander about while enjoying the crisp clean air and sounds of nature. Cascading transitional atmospheres collide and disintegrate like leaves that fall to their death. Wind picks them up for one last journey. I took that one last step into the depths of what I may never experience again, until I put this place into my head again for one last walk into the warm rays of the setting sun.

(alan)
(Seven)


Illusions of Move - Chapter Blue (Recycle Your Ears)

This LP is the first one of the "Illusions of Moves" series that will eventually contain 5 Starfish Pool LPs, each one based one a colour and the feeling that fits it. Blue is for sadness, Red for passion, black for "heavy and soulful" things, white for "open and minimalistic" ones, and yellow for brightness. A selection of tracks from these discs of the very productive Starfish Pool will also be issued on 2 CDs.
With the first part of these series is presented, darkness and sad atmospheres are at the center. This is particularely clear with the very melancholic soundscape of "Mental" or the strange background music that supports everyday life samples on "Fall". However, one should not forget that this is Starfish Pool: the music is a very flowing kind of industrial techno, with a lot of melodic loops being intertwined at a rather fast pace. Some rare distorted sounds are also used, giving to this LP a bit of a Black Lung feeling, but the whole thing stays catchy and "moves" easily around very nice tunes and a steady beat. I wouldn't call this material aggressive at all, since the listener has plenty of space to breathe. This music, very well produced and recorded, is ample and quite spacey, without being too ambient.
Complex and interesting, "Illusions of move, chapter blue" has raised my curiosity toward this series. Even though I'm not sure it's as dark or as sad as one could expect (except, as already said, on a couple of tracks), this is very soulful. This disc carries a very urban feeling (for example with a lot of voice samples) in an intelligent way, that makes it very enjoyable. Definitely a good disc, a good introduction to Starfish Pool, and something which fits well the very high quality of the Hymen releases.

(nicolas)
(Recycle Your Ears)


Illusions of Move - Chapter Blue (Re:mote Induction)

Illusions Of Move - Chapter Blue is the first chapter in a planned series of 5 12" releases planned by Starfish Pool. This first part comes to us through Hymen, the first 700 copies coming with a poster which goes with the art of the cover stamps.
Savage starts the release with a manic beat - full force technoised manner that has us going. Voices cry out from the background while bass swirls in an approaching, squelching loop and beats are rapid and tinny. The layering of the sound is somewhat dizzying and overwhelming. Fall, which follows, starts simpler, a voice issues instructions in the next room. Sounds sneak in, slight loops of background sound. That seems to be a short track which leads to the more extended Passing By. Beats pattern up the backgrounds while swirls offer a foreground atmosphere - with intermediary layers providing texture. After 4 minutes we can start to hear voices growing beneath the regularity. A half heard dialogue unfolds, intriguing, with sections legible and others not. Melody emerges from the constant drive, associating with the words - with the effect in some ways reminding me of certain tracks by Godspeed You Black Emperor.
The second side of Illusions Of Move brings us Driven. An echoing rise, with a bleeping cycle, the rise an initial sigh. 1.30 in and a regular hihat percussion track is added - a constant, while the sigh continues to form melodic lead. A crunchier bass loops and comes forward, bringing a thumping rhythm with it. By which point Driven is pretty upbeat, but smooth and mellow with that. Conclusion leading to a slow strip downwards. While Blue Excursion leaps from the pause, suggesting a rush of squelching bass form, though this evens out quickly layering up to complexity. The constant hihat work mixes with the bass and melodic swirls with the presence of voices coming through in the mix. Illusions Of Move continues with a drift of melody and a bass hump, like something emerging from the water while its bulk remain submerged - Mental. Slowly moving forward on a tight focus, consisting of these elements. A high bleep stream rushes in, each element short and strung together as a continuous thread. The bleeping grows becoming an intensity, a whirring, clicking forefront. The frequency changes and falls into slow bass, from which point the track changes almost seamlessly into Slowed, though the feeling is consistent. The motion is more fluid, the sighing a stream with melodic waves and light ripples. Melody growing more prominent and leading us on while the bass becomes something of a regular drone.
Illusions Of Move and the previous Rituals For The Dying which I am also currently listening to, are strong releases which I have been enjoying a lot. The layers of sound work closely together, creating a complexity that really gels together, but is difficult to describe to convey its full depth and detail. Strongly techno influenced in its sound structure yet Starfish Pool seem instead to be offering sculptured sound scapes and engaging ambient mood music.

(ptr)
(Re:mote Induction)


Illusions of Move - Chapter Red (Recycle Your Ears)

Red, the color of passion, is the theme of the second LP in the "Illusions of move" series, following the sad blue one. This time again, Starfish Pool and Hymen deliver us seven track of niceand clear techno that is innovative and soulful enough to appeal to a vast majority of open minded industrial fans, but should also appeal to those of you who are more IDM inclined. Finally, the Hymen stamps that illustrate this release are less abstract than usual, presenting very good photographs that seems taken from a movie, and whose red tones fit perfectly the subject of the music.
At the very first listening, this red chapter sounds close to the blue one but, after some times, the listener understands the wide difference between the two. Where "Chapter blue" was flowing and lush, the red one is deep and jerkier. There are less layers of sounds on this new disc, and the sounds used are shorter, closer to blips and clicks, but a steady, almost IDM-ish bass keeps rolling during most of the chapter. In consequence, this all sounds a bit more abstract and in fact less techno, but seems also more free. Needless to say, the material from which the tracks are done is original and Starfish Pool has really acquired his own sonorities. Another difference between the blue and red chapters lies in the fewer samples to be found here, replaced, in a way, by more beats, which have also taken the place of the longer melodic lines present on "Chapter blue". All in all, this is a bit more pounding and made of complex structures, and a bit less easy to listen to. Finally, the track are more different from each others, ranging from faster pieces to more experimental sounding ones, based on short percussions slowly joined by ambient soundscapes.
However, Koen Lybaert, the man behind Starfish Pool, has also managed here to create a music that sounds urban and ample. I wouldn't be surpised if a piece from this disc was to be featured on the soundtrack for a move whose story would take place in New York City or London. Future-oriented, innovative but really emotionnal, Starfish Pool's music in this series proves to be something of its own kind, integrating a lot of influence from the past with newer, current sounds.
I'm really enthusiastic about this release and am waiting eagerly for the remaining three chapters of "Illusions of move". Starfish Pool signs here a LP that is really not to be missed. Moreover, it's really pleasant to see how Ant Zen / Hymen is moving forward some clearer, more flowing and boundaries free sounds with their latest releases (by Torsion, Substanz T, Beefcake, or Lusine icl (also released on Starfish Pool's U-Cover records, by the way).

(nicolas)
(Recycle Your Ears)


Illusions of Move - Chapter Red (Re:mote Induction)

Chapter Red is the second in the Illusion Of Moves 12" series from Starfish Pool on Hymen. The bustle of Downtown starts us off: chatter, birds, a passing bus. Which all slides into the rhythmic melody. An upbeat rhythm with streamlined melodies in motion - creating an overall mellow and enjoyable flow. With a rise of voices the beats fall off and the music takes a more shimmering feel. This then sees a shift to a more bass tinged bobbing melody and slow tapping beats. Somewhere between that fall and shift we moved without hesitation into Subsequent. This layers allowing the addition of a more floating melodic level. With a slow fade and tunnel rush this piece starts a slow dissolve. Marking a clear move onto Tokyo Express, which has a little bubbling melody backed by a deep bass line. A tumbling construct, reminiscent of parts of Sweetwater. Expanding in a lush easiness that balances impression of a contemporary electronic dark fairytale. The last piece, Pitch Dark, has a snap tap rhythm construct - blocky, with top touches and bass dips. Within the percussion slow sighs can be heard to be building , forming a buzz vibe. The percussion falls out, leaving the vibe to drift to a conclusion.
The second side starts with the agitated bass swirl and tapping bubble of Wean. This gives way to a plinking note sequence and a hard bass ridge that circles the core. Snappish beat work building, in the process the track gaining disruptions. This has an unhurried, but deep feel to its sound. Slight melodies are heard in fade, first hints of what the dissipated intro of Red Excursion holds. Droning bass tones come to the fore with a scratched score of percussion. This holds a warbling expansion, drawing out in the process to give a more post-rock impression ala Llips.. Another seamless shift seems to occur, leading to Mexican Escape, a bobbing electro-rhythm, snap and fade beats. A squelching impression comes in with the flow - swirl and extension - along with other little elements that add to the detail. As it ends towards conclusion it gains a moment of liquid feeling, the wash of waves mixing with the chatter and bustle of a city sound stream.
Another strong release in this series, which is being combined with the first part on a CD called the Illusion Of Move - The Golden Cycle as I type.

(ptr)
(Re:mote Induction)


Holon - Japanorexia
(Recycle Your Ears)

Holon is a collaborative project founded by Koen Lybaert (Starfish Pool, U-Cover) and Riou Tomita (who has released three albums in Japan). "Japanorexia", the sequel to "The total fucking recolution edits", the project's first album, released on Silver Recordings, was written during the summers of 1999 and 2000, after the ban's european tour.
I'm not familiar with Riou Tomita's music, but I can compare Holon to Starfish Pool (which is all the more valid since 5 of the tracks on "Japanorexia" were written by Koen Lybaert alone). The first thing to say is that Holon use less techno-oriented sounds, and has richer texture, but somewhat more classic structure. I mean that where Starfish Pool creates tweaked loops of well synthesized techno / industrial material, Holon is more repetitive, but is less club-oriented, and has less of a sci-fi feeling. Quite loop-based, this album "moves" less than the Starfish Pool "Illusions of move" LPs on Ant Zen or the "Kinetic" album on Daft (noticed the reference to movement in the titles, by the way?), and takes more time to build its ambiences. The sounds range from very small canned beats to more "wet" sounding scapes or from small blips to beautiful and melodic soundscapes. Some voice samples are used, but stay quite seldom. All in all, this doesn't have the instant catchiness of Starfish Pool, stays relatively abstract (maybe the touch of Riou Tomita) and tend to be closer to electronica.
I can't compare here the tracks that were done together to the one that only one of these artists wrote, since the tracklist of the booklet strangely doesn't correspond to the disc, but the album is quite coherent, evolving from the more percussive tracks of the beginning to the deeper, more subtles ones of the end. Overall, this is a very well recorded and flowing free electronic CD, that manages to be very pleasant and current without being overly innovative. Enjoyable, most of all for people already listening to Starfish Pool.
Last info: this will also be released on a LP containing 6 tracks, 2 of which are not to be found on the CD.

(Recycle Your Ears)


Holon - Japanorexia (L'entrepot)

Holon is the collaboration between the Belgian musician Koen Lybaert and Riou Tomita from Japan. Koen Lybaert is already known from his projects Starfish Pool and Starfish Enterprises. The first song 'Check and run' doesn't sound strange for the Starfish Pool fan: strong and repetitive techscapes. But how further on the CD, how more you hear that Koen Lybaert use more soundscapes than normal. The repetitive breakbeats are left behind to create dark atmospheres. It is strange to see that the collaboration with Riou Tomia brings Koen Lybaert closer to his first project Starfish Enterprises. 'Blanket' is one of the most interesting examples on this album it is a coalition between the soundscapes and the repetitive basses.
'Japanorexia' is maybe already one of the best releases of the year. The clash of the two musicians result in a variable album.

(L'entrepot)


Illusions of Move - Golden Cycle (Recycle Your Ears)

The "Illusions of move" series by Starfish Pool is going to be a huge piece of work once it will reach its completion. Planned to be released over two years, five vinyls and two CDs will constitute Starfish Pool interpretation of colours. After the blue and red chapter, here comes the first CD, who feature five tracks from these two 12" and five new ones. Magnificiently packaged (am I the only one who noticed that Stefan Alt has begun this year to real human subject for his designs?), this CD is a highly profound and addictive thing.

And the surprise is that "The golden cycle" sounds, paradoxically, very different from the blue and red chapters. Even though half of the tracks are taken from these discs, the fact that the "blue" tracks are very poetic and flowing, the "red" one more minimal techno-id provides some diversity, which is re-inforced by the main surprise on this CD, the voices of two female vocalist (one from New York City and the other one from Mexico). This singing make of the new track something completely different from what Starfish Pool used to offer us, and leaning far more toward his work in Llips.

May it be real "songs" or just choir-like things ("Arised"), the tracks on this disc are really more than the very flowing music I was expecting from Starfish Pool (and that is to be heard, for example, on his CD on Daft). More "broken" but more poetic, the music stays electronic but goes more in the background, as the voices are on the forefront on the songs. The tones are still gentle, the beats are still small but well placed, but the whole thing has again gained in poetry and deepness with the addition of this "human aspect".

All in all, if "Passing by" (from the "chapter blue" 12") stays my favorite track on the disc, this CD brings something new to the whole cycle, and maybe introduces a new dimension that will be developped in the next chapter. Time will tell how Starfish Pool will evolve, and if it will stay this very melodic and subtle techno act it used to be, or if Koen Lybaert's solo project will get even closer to the accoustic music of Llips. Anyway, this is a recommended CD, that is all the more mandatory if you haven't got the 12" yet.

(nicolas)
(Recycle Your Ears)


Illusions of Move - Golden Cycle (Starvox)

Ahhh, categories. I have played with them in reviews past, and it's appropriate here, I think. Starfish Pool... I.A.M.? Intelligent Ambient Music? Hmmnn... Traditionally, I have been stunningly underwhelmed by the material on Hymen records. Starfish Pool have shattered this tradition with a beautifully catchy release, apparently part of a series of releases designed to be heard together. The 'Illusions of Move' series has followed color scales, with 'The Blue Cycle' being the first, and 'The Golden Cycle' being the latest. (At least, I think that's the basic idea... the press release is less than informative having been written by someone boasting less-than-adroit ESL skills...)
The Author of Starfish Pool, Koen Lybaert, has used a variety of field recordings from the streets of Mexico City and New York City to create the 'Golden Cycle', and embellished on the concepts with the vocals of Laura Rebuttini and Ivy Smits. 'The Golden Cycle' is evocative, even hypnotic, bringing to mind Jean Michelle Jarre's work. No easy task, yet deftly executed. Not as dark and brooding as I usually like my ambient, yet not so 'fluffypeaceandlove' as new age-styled ambient. Part soundscape, part meditational background music, part ambient experimentalism, Starfish Pool is a very enjoyable project. I would highly recommend this to fans of experimentalist ambient music. I.A.M. indeed.

(Psionic)
(Starvox)


Illusions of Move - Golden Cycle (allmusic.com)

Part of a series of titles under the Illusions of Move rubric, The Golden Cycle continues Lybaert's dual fascination with rhythm and, for this sequence in particular, color. The Golden Cycle itself features Lybaert working mainly with two collaborators, Chantal Yzermans in New York City and Esther Santoyo in Mexico City, both of whom contribute found sound recordings. Rather than aiming at a consistent fourth world style of avant-garde jazz/electronics, for all the city themes and occasional explorations of darker sonics, Lybaert creates some fine variety, with serener numbers suggesting the early-'90s ambient techno of Biosphere and similar acts. Nothing is in-your-face or explosive, neither is it explicitly doom-laden in overall approach � subtlety is the key here, both in music and in singing. The singing, mostly by Laura Rebutinni and Ivy Smits � both have attractive voices, gently smoky and passionate � softly echoes through their respective songs, gently verging between functioning as another instrument and a more direct clarity. The Smits-sung "Break the Sea Below" is the most conventional song in this regard, a bit of a torch song effort relocated into the future (and, to Lybaert's credit, sounding nothing like a Portishead rip-off). "Hide and Seek" introduces a light, persistent loop, which then continues on the following "Sinked," appearing in slightly different guises but otherwise making for a gently meditative musical core, the more so because it's a synth-tone loop rather than, say, a breakbeat. Where Lybaert does introduce direct percussion beats, again the effect is more implied instead of slammed out of the speakers, the combination of cylical melodies and backgrounds emphasizing the rhythm as much as the drum sounds. 2001 may seem a bit early for the 1993 electronic revival in the end, but Starfish Pool make a good case for such a thing here.

(Ned Raggett)
(allmusic.com)


Illusions of Move - Golden Cycle (AmbiEntrance)

koen lybaert's looping electronic experimentations are at the heart of starfish pool; he also introduces the sounds of four women into illusions of move - the golden cycle, incorporating soundrecordings from chantal yzermans (New York) and esther santoyo (Mexico City) as well as vocalizations from laura rebuttini and ivy smits.
Hovering waves of resonance, soft technoprimitive percussion and on-the-street samples sweep through wonder/metal slowed like a filmic dream-journey. hide and seek's starkly bopping notes are topped with dreamy strands of wordless female croons and underscored by odd electronic activities. The same glimmering rythmic pattern is diffused in steamy sinked. Sparking drumhits override the seductively low-key lounge-style singing of pitch dark/say anymore now (2:31). Operatic tones occasionally seep from the densely boiling murk of arised. Speaking of murk, there's a lot of it sweltering around in passing by, from where steady almost-mechanical rhythms emerge (as does some young urban male conversation and synthsymphonics).
The wispy trails of that piece segue into break the sea below (8:25); nostalgically crooned vocals ride atop a vague, swishy backdrop with plucky beatronic accents. More-contemporary percussion spatters throughout mexican escape accompanied by quirky electronic pulsations and blits.
All said, the ten tracks of illusions of move - the golden cycle add up to almost-an-hour of subtle sonic experimentations. Dive into starfish pool for obtuse-yet-accessible 8.5 listening.

(AmbiEntrance)

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