Arovane / Ve Palor
Label: n5MD

Eclipse
Reviewed 2013-10-21

First release in 9 years from this ambient electronic artist. In the first couple songs, Soft, minimal drum beat, synths start off soft and smooth. As the album progresses, the drums and synths become sharper, glitchier, move faster and hit more frequently. The melody does not hold notes very long. Sometimes slow, peaceful, and wandering, Minecraft-like, except with more synth. No voice, so no FCCs.

1. (2:30) Bubbly-sounding synth (kind of glitchy) on top of slow, surreal-sounding atmospheric ambient chords. Heads up: fades out completely, then comes back in for a few seconds at the very end.
2. (3:17) Legato, slightly phasing synths at the start. Minimal drum beat comes in and stays the whole time. Very slight glitching effects.
3. (7:43) Slow, wandering xylophone-sounding melody with quiet but busy drums, as well as synths similar to the ones in the last song, except quieter and quicker and more in the background. Xylophone fades out, fun with synths: they start glitching more and change timbre quickly, similar to a Transformer transforming, but always legato.
4. (3:45) Space-like, echoey chords from the first track are revived, now with a slow, meandering bass underneath more legato-but-changing-tone-quickly synths, this time with softer waveforms.
5. (6:42) Same synths, now more energetic and active pitch-wise, drum beat more energetic but still muffled. More random than other tracks so far. Reminds me of eating Pop-Rocks. Piano-esque sound comes in and gradually takes over. Sounds similar to Minecraft’s calming, spacey piano.
6. (7:01) Synths and beat similar to the previous track, but now with more squeaks and other short sounds thrown in. Drum hits more frequently now, but still muffled, as always. Drums and synths glitch often now.
7. (7:07) Less energy this time. Has more long notes fading in and out at different pitches, devolving into the earlier-mentioned atmospheric sound. Main synth becomes less consistent and hits less often, but longer when it does. No drums.
8. (4:59) Echoey, longer synth chords in the foreground with deeper harmonies than before. Glitching synth is now in the background. Minimal percussion.
9. (4:55) Keeps the more-abundant harmonies from the last song, but moves them to the background. Glitchy synth comes to a climax, then focus moves to the muffled drum beat which is now more energetic. My favorite.
10. (7:16) Slow meandering bass is back from track 4, and now starts to phase. Ambient chords in the background again. Drums hit more frequently and deeper than before.
11. (5:33) This one has slightly more videogame-like sound effects. The melody is more distinguishable than on other tracks, but it still has the same spontaneous quality that the main glitchy synth sound has had before. Fainter drums.
12. (4:20) Atmospheric background chords are back, drums are the melody, but different now: this time they have the same mild legato, slightly-phasing feel introduced in the second track.