Felix NEill

This is one of two special Record Store Day 2011 releases that I was desperate to get my hands on. (Don't worry, viewers, I got the other one as well.)

Limited edition 12“, edition of 500, no repress. With remixes by Studio, Etienne Jaumet and Mauve Deep
SIDE A.
1. Pastoral Symphony I. Dominoes II. Infinity Room (Original Version by ARP)
2. The Past (Version by STUDIO)

SIDE B.
3. PS (Version by MAUVE DEEP)
4. La Symphonie Pastorale (Version by ETIENNE JAUMET)

On the heels of his critically–acclaimed album The Soft Wave, ARP (born Alexis Georgopoulos) releases the single Pastoral Symphony.

Remixers include Sweden’s finest Balearic STUDIO, the visual artist Keegan McHargue’s first release as MAUVE DEEP and Carl Craig–chum ETIENNE JAUMET.

Side A features the original. As the title implies – the full title is Pastoral Symphony I. Dominoes II. Infinity Room – this 8+ minute epic comes in two parts. Part I. Dominoes unfolds in a hazy blown out sheen, a rippling bass cycle underpinning a gloriously distorted synth melody. The mood is romantic and yearning. Things peak in a tumble of trembled Minimoog tunnel before a soft come down that fades into the second section. Part II. Infinity Room is name in homage to those minimalist rooms built by Yayoi Kusama and Lucas Samaras in which everything in said room is multiplied infinitely in a boxed cascade of mirrors. As such it builds and builds towards some infinite reach.

STUDIO’s remix is a taut electro–funk workout. Like their original material, there are nods to The Cure, Balaeric and even soundtrack music.

MAUVE DEEP reclaims the original’s cosmic intentions. On a cloud of minutely repeated patterns, nearly unaugmented tracks move sideways, like so many shifting tectonics.
Somewhere between Terry Riley, Oval and the stratosphere, this mix finds is celestial harmony. And it’s fully blissed.

ETIENNE JAUMET, whose recent Night Music (Domino) was mixed by Carl Craig, returns the favor with a mix that finds that perfect middle point between Craig’s moody minimal techno and Psychic TV’s early nods toward Detroit.