HYPERMONDES (vinyl)

Description

Since its inception, Amor Blitz has consistently carved a path à la Lewis Carroll - through the looking-glass, where imagination plays on an equal footing with reality. In the lineage of melodic and insatiable pop, embodied by both Todd Rundgren and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Emmanuel Szczygiel unfurls polished melodies, which he delights in exploding according to his whims. Carried by poetic and familiar writing, the harmonies become playful. Nothing is lost, everything intertwines - psychedelic flourishes are enriched with orchestral arrangements (strings, electric organs, flutes), the voice entwines with guitars, the production becomes cinematic. Where the first album expressed urgency, a decidedly rock impatience, Amor Blitz has evolved towards more slowness and magic. The energy has not been lost along the way, but has taken alternative routes: rather than heading straight for the cliff, the melodies take time to get lost, sometimes to grow, sometimes to shed layers. The songwriting, like the production, has expanded. The richer soundscape can now accommodate more: the groove of the drums and basses, influenced by Motown or Stax, has gained in presence. Between soft rock and psychedelic pop, Hypermondes allows itself artifices but doesn't pretend. Hypermondes is an escape to the four corners of a world that is neither ours nor entirely another. By heading straight into the imagination, Emmanuel Szczygiel seeks the shortest path to beauty. --- Andrea Thominot ---