Articles
2009 Artists' Picks
Lymbyc Systym

Albums
Cory Allen
aus
The Bird Ensemble
Canaille
Catlin & Machinefabriek
Greg Davis
Loren Dent
Dirac
Drafted By Minotaurs
Flica
Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
Gown
John Hollenbeck
Viviane Houle
I/DEX
Akira Kosemura
Andrew McKenna Lee
Le Lendemain
LRAD
Lymbyc Systym
Melorman
Muskox
The Mercury Program
Nikasaya
Northerner
nörz
Noveller / Aidan Baker
Redshape
Marina Rosenfeld
Stripmall Architecture
Sturqen
Wes Willenbring
The Tony Wilson Sextet
Julia Wolfe
Peter Wright
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Blackoperator
Glimpse Four:Twenty 03
Kod.eX
Portland Stories

EPs
Molnbär Av John
Tommi Bass & B.B.S.C.
Julian Beau
Colours-Volume 5
Dalot
Echologist
Simon James French
Geiom & Shortstuff
General Elektriks
Geskia
Ernest Gonzales
Gradient
Jacksonville
Joker
Ann Laplantine
Loko
Machinefabriek
Stefano Pilia
Damian Valles

Flica: Telepathy Dreams
Flica

Kuala Lumpur-based Eu Seng Seto crafts deep electro-acoustic tone poems under the alias Flica. Having issued two releases on Schole—Windvane & Window (which featured contributions from Akira Kosemura and Haruka Nakamura) and Nocturnal—Seto chose to release Telepathy Dreams without the aid of a record company; the meaning of the album's title can be inferred by Seto's own words, “In the absence of telepathy, there will be no traces of us in our hearts, and perhaps only in dreams, the splendor will remain.” Obviously there's an unabashedly romantic and emotive character to his material, and the recording's nine bedroom-generated settings are free of irony. Throughout the album, gentle piano and acoustic guitar melodies meander through shimmering forests of synthetic tones and washes with epic and expansive evocations the result.

Augmented by a downtempo drum pulse, “Commes” starts out with pretty and soothing streams of synthetic waves before subtly swelling into semi-ecstatic peals. An occasional hint of woodwinds adds to the music's allure, as occurs during “Midnight Waving,” but the orchestral zenith is reached in “Istatic” which unspools in stately fashion for eight minutes in a grandiose haze of string tones, delicate piano melodies, and electric and acoustic guitar patterns. Seto avoids one-dimensionality by broadening the Flica sound into post-rock territory in “Drun,” whose atmospheric shoegaze treatments call to mind Robin Guthrie, Manual, or perhaps an n5MD artist or two, and downtempo drums lend a post-rock feel to “Seing” as well. Regardless, the Flica world is by design paradisiacal rather than harrowing, and Seto clearly sets his sights on uplift in his tracks rather than gloom-mongering. The ambiance is very much in line with the serenading style one associates with the Schole and Kitchen. labels so devotees of their output should find much to like about Telepathy Dreams too.

January 2010