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thesunlounge · 4 years

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Reviews 301: Pascal Viscardi

I first came to the music of Pascal Viscardi via the Nero di Seppia 7”, which Periodica Records put out at the start of 2018. The release was marvel, even by Periodica’s usually stellar standards, and saw Viscardi merging esoteric ambient textures and spiritual ocean sonics with strands of Floydian space funk and West Hill-style futurescape boogie. Next came the Arcipelago 12”, also on Periodica, which amplified the dancefloor vibrations while reveling in humid tropical synthesis, syncopated machine rhythms, tripped out dub textures, and ethnological percussions source from Mali. Both releases have cemented the artist as a true favorite, so I was overjoyed to learn a few weeks ago that Viscardi was releasing a mini-LP, this time on Born, that new and Saft-related imprint responsible for this year’s loving reissue of Joan Bibiloni’s Born. Titled Lluvia de Verano, the album sees the artist furthering his explorations of mystical island atmospherics and interstellar dubfunk exotics while adding in psychedelic voice textures, Wally Badarou references, and featuring yet another dazzling display of world percussion that includes seed shakers and coconut maracas from Bali. And as evidenced by the back cover, Viscardi employs an envious array of analog synthesizers, old skool samplers, and drum machines past and present to guide the listener through his cosmo-balearic body dance wonderland. What’s more, Paula Tape appears and transforms Viscardi’s equatorial idiophone grooves into a deeper than deep slice of sensual house while psychotropic dub master androo presents a two part zoner epic.

Pascal Viscardi - Lluvia de Verano (Born Records, 2019) “Lluvia de Verano” sees vivacious hand drums slapping over a methodical kick beat, with shakers both machine generated and organic adding to the building groove panorama. Percussive mallet patterns splash through the air and lasers blast across the mix, bringing with them dancing balafon and marimba exotics. Everything is mesmerically layered and what was once a bare percussive ritual evolves into a kaleidoscopic slice of balearic beat…the vibe expressive, warm, and deeply drugged out. Acid synths stab and tubular squarewave basslines push the body towards dancefloor bliss while hats and tapped cymbals add touches of disco heat. Glowing synthetic melodies hover like a hallucination as Viscardi and Anissa Charef whisper variations of the track title, their voices sensual and stimulating…like a lover’s breath on the back of the neck. Seed shakers flying through the mix mimicking swarms of locusts, aqueous electronics float in place before dispersing, and radiant melodics call out to the spirit of the sun, eventually joined by string synthesizers that glow in sunrise colorations as they melt the heart into a paradise swoon. Blasts of thunder are heard in the distance and warm tropical breezes surround dial tone tracers in the style of Eddie C while elsewhere, virtual pan-pipes play mystical new age spiritualisms amidst ethno-drum jam outs. At some point we break down into sparse percussive wonderment, with cowbells and rimshots interspersed between thunder cracks, bursting acid bubbles, and emotional string cascades…a moment of calm within the eye of an ocean storm. And as the exotica-inflected dubfunk groove out returns, idiophones splash like water on rainforest vegetation and creatures of the jungle gyrate beneath the sky as it rains down a futuristic soundbath of equatorial mesmerism.

Shakers accent a city-leveling kick in Paula Tape’s remix of the title track, with those telephone tracers smothered in spectral noise. After a brief rhythmic pause, the producer drops one of the year’s best basslines, all ultra-jacking acidic fire that pushes the body towards ecstasy. The mix is suffused by rainbow waveforms as Viscardi’s tropical melodies are repurposed into shadowy textures of drug euphoria, with everything trailing through infinite reverb layers, and Paula Tape completely transforms the original’s vocals…her orgasmic repetitions of “lluvia de verano / ven conmigo / summer rain / come with be” evoking some mysterious star-maiden speaking universal secrets (and thus recalling Rosi Müller’s collaborations with The Cosmic Jokers). The deep house incantations are helped along by cracking snare rolls, hand drum exotics, and shuffling hi-hat hypnotics as dreamy recollections of Viscardi’s idiophonics are introduced…like a splash of tropical warmth amidst the zoned out dancefloor ritualism. And during crucial moments, the basslines pull away, leaving tapped kicks, future jazz textures, and electro-clap panoramas to float through the cosmos before Paula Tape returns us to the late night body dance ceremonial. “Guided by a White Light” begins with guiro scrapes and a treble soundbath, before evolving into a reverbated shuffle…like sunset lounge exotica meeting new age cabana jazz. Chime strands glisten like diamonds, mallet lullabies rain from the sky, mermaid choirs sing from fantasy islands, and birdsong transmutes into hallucinatory feedback while psychosonic dub fx generate a dreamspace aura. Elsewhere, e-pianos radiate beautiful tones of ocean crystal and mystical fusion leads sing towards horizon...their sounds sourced from some futuristic wood flute that recalls Viscardi’s “Scogliera”.

Cymbals skitter and hand drums decay through sea-spray in “La Chemise Versace,” while Viscardi layers the background with bird chirps and sea duck squawks. An equatorial disco cruise emerges, kissed by touches of island magic, with white noise wisps swirling around futuristic funkbass sunshine and massive 80s-style snares cracking on the beat. Cosmic synthesizers intertwine with seascape electronics in direct reference to Badarou’s “Endless Race,” which are sometimes supported by blistering chords and sweltering pad layers…all while mallet instruments shimmer in the background. Cool ocean breezes carry coral colored gemstones, wah-wah electronics swell together, and child-like tropicalisms pan around the stereo field, with the drums sometimes morphing into a nervous stutter before snapping back into paradise jam euphoria. And the ever present field recordings add to the immersion, inviting the mind to picture seagulls swooping over deep blue waters while colorful crabs dance across white sand beaches. Next is “Paramarimbo,” where entrancing electronic textures flutter across the spectrum. Hi-hats and hand drums build a strange rhythm before effortlessly transitioning into a four-four glide, wherein skronking bass synths underly heatwave chords while mediterranean wavefronts arc through the air. A lackadaisical disco pulse anchors it all…uptempo, infectious, yet supremely doped out…with joyous clap patterns and jangling tambourines swam around by aquatic tracers and siren squiggles. Reggae chords drip soulful island magic as everything wiggles and writhes, with white light synthesis joining in with fusion leads as they scat on sunbeams, all quivering sexual energy and equatorial wonderment intertwining amidst starlight feedback trails and a melodic polyrhythm panorama.

Guiros, shakers, and jaguar breaths introduce androo’s remix of “Guided Dub, Chapitre 1 & 2,” with hand drums popping through reverb caverns. Ghostly pianos work above airy riddims, dub chords echo through the jungle nightscape, and sub-bass synths move with liquid jazz majesty while science fiction whistles smear into a cubist haze. At certain moments, the drum layers devolve through bit crushed ring modulators and malfunctioning phase shifters, with the vibe growing increasingly alien. Everything eventually fades out into hovering chords, animalistic howls, and scraping drum textures…the vibe uncertain and anxious until the groove shambles back in, less defined than before...as if constructed from gas. Water droplets are threaded into fractal strands, feedback flutes scat through free jazz mutations, and dub echoes are subverted into psychosonic madness, while in a moment of pure inspiration, androo drops a brief yet utterly perfect brass synth progression…an eerie moment of melancholic reggae magic amidst the shifting rhythm fever dream. “Pianeta Bongo” ends the album with a slow and low tropical future-freak zone out, as jacking clap patterns and pounding West Hill-style boogie basslines join in with stoned out machine rhythms and beachside bongo accents. Marimbas splash through tidepools and a xylophonic rain falls over the mix while vocalized synthesizers dance…almost talkbox like and soaked in neon atmosphere. Low slung basslines groove endlessly, bell-tones wash out into an aqueous haze, and gemstone fusion electronics weave spaceage harmonies, with mid-bass squelches firing in counterpoint. It’s a world of tropical delirium and esoteric psychedelia, made all the more hallucinatory by an uncredited appearance from Enrico Fierro, whose erotic whispers and creepy vocalizations, as well as Charef's, push the mind even further towards a fever dream trance state.

(images from my personal copy)

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