Somebody’s been a keen study of the teutonic pioneers of old, and Vivek is the genre’s latest wholecloth graduate. There’s an entire roster of influences on display right from the opening arpeggiations found on this, his Carpe Sonum debut. The obvious Tangerine Dreamisms and Schulzian thrusts persist, but some of the more obscure practitioners peek over the horizon as well: France’s Space Art, Ian Boddy and Wavestar’s early suborbital fantasias, Steve Roach’s sequencer extravaganzas. Yet despite the historical antecedents, Vivek knows a thing or two about crafting an effective weave of square wave and farflung pomp. His complex, interlocked patterning propels you mightily along all kinds of multi-dimensional axes, and he possesses the rare ability to embellish those undulating waves with all sorts of deft, well-timed touches (such as the seagull cries that pierce the sequencer shuffle about halfway through “Cosmos Art”). As the album progresses, entire weather systems are magically created, as on the engulfing title track, where big fat moog blobs erupt out of a synthetic pyroclastic flow, while underneath, ticktock percussion maps out its own inescapable and wholly magnetic energy. Rendered in a painterly fashion like the finest Dutch masters, this is a helluva work of synthesizer art.
 
Vivek | Chords of Forgiveness | CD