Iris Manta – Kilonova (CD Album – Iris Manta)
Genre/Influences: Electro-ambient, electro-pop, minimal-electro.
Background/Info: “Kilonova” is the second full length album by Greek artist Manos Zafirakis. Iris Manta is inspired by astral-ambient music and this new work is meant as ‘an attempt to decode astronomical events into music’.
Content: The concept is intriguing and also rather sophisticated. It totally fits with the music of this artist, which is clearly inspired by some electronic ‘space-ambient’ pioneers such as Van Gelis, J.M Jarre and related artists, but also by Kraftwerk (especially at the beginning of this album). A few robotic vocals can be heard on the beginning track, but Iris Manta first of all remains an instrumental project.
+ + + : Manos Zafirakis clearly appears to be a truly sound genius and his analogue sound treatments are simply phenomenal. It’s a great ‘retro’-style evoking the early years of electronic music, but it also stands for a creative process in the global sound production. Definitely space-like and sometimes a bit psychedelic-minded, this album reveals 8 fascinating cuts.
– – – : I regret there are no more vocals and/or choirs featured on the album. I was surprised by the track “Nucleosynthesis”, which sounds totally different from the other cuts. It’s more into modernism and flat sound treatments, but not really matching with the rest of the tracklist.
Conclusion: If you like the good-old synth music and some of its pioneers, you for sure gone like Iris Manta, which on “Kilonova” bring those artists alive.
Best songs: “Stellar Sculptures”, “Canvas Electron”, “Inverted Aeons”.
Rate: (8).
Artist: www.facebook.com/Iris–Manta-767551936654269
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