My review of "The Radiant Sea" CD by Bridge To Imla

[richardgurtler]

Bridge To Imla "The Radiant Sea" CD

Although collaborated since 2010 on various occasions, Michael Brückner and Hans-Dieter Schmidt, created Bridge To Imla project during 2017. But the initial idea for this album is dated back to 2013, when Michael Brückner recorded the track "All The Weight Of The Sun" for a compilation released by Jack Hertz' label Aural Films entitled "Fukushima Drones". "The Radiant Sea" CD was released on sympathetic Dutch Winter-Light label at December 1st, 2017 and it's packaged in deeply immersing glossy 6-panel digipak, designed by Winter-Light's Midnight Sun Studio. Another applause, this time for the mastering wizardry, goes to Robert Rich.

"Prologue: The Kuroshio Current", named after a north-flowing ocean current, reveals with gossamery click-clacks and Japanese spoken words, but the listener soon dives into unfathomably mindscaping depths, where nebulously nuanced dronescapes masterfully commingle with glimpses of shimmering traceries and shortly lasting, yet devastatingly arising vistas. Subtle piano motifs navigate towards "Tsushima Basin", which glides through gracefully expansive and serpentinely enthralling zones. Ear-tickling illuminations keep on emerging here and there. A blazingly transporting odyssey fully unfolds all its magic!!! "Shatsky Rise" (Earth's third largest oceanic plateau) keeps on the intense route, when amalgamating more vigorous passages with poignant tapestries of weeping bowed strings. Shorter "The Aleutian Current" merges longing ethereal climaxes with swells of harsher piquancies. "Hikurangi Plateau" crescendoes into breathtakingly magnificent and panoptically immense meridians. Fleeting, yet thrillingly engulfing!!! "Mariana Trench" pinnacles, drifts and descends through balmy piano quietudes into titillatingly reverberating domains. "Louisville Ridge" attracts with its vintage-driven high-pitched patterns delightfully juxtaposed by intangibly warmer piano narrations. "The California Current", at 1:34 the shortest piece on the album, moves through flatlined layers and enigmatic undulations towards the hadopelagic zone of "Richards Deep". Clocking over 7-minute mark and surrounded by an array of clinks, tinkles, rumbles..., yet as much minimal as the hostile living conditions in these realms. "Raukumara Plain", with 7-plus minutes the longest track on "The Radiant Sea" serenely returns into more textured terrains, where emotively persistent traverses continuously commingle with charmingly echoed glimmers. "Emerald Fracture Zone" is imbued by all these flickering fragments, while ambiguously colored and sinuously obfuscated layers inconspicuously emanate and steal the core of this profoundly intriguing scenario. "Fobos-Grunt" thus arrives surreptitiously and shifts into nearly transcendental realms propelled by metallic-charged embellishments and spaciously intensified sheets. "The Humboldt Current" merges mesmerizingly infinite helixes with introspective flute motifs and lachrymosely enveloping blankets. "Galathea Depth" glides effortlessly into the most extreme and shadowiest depths of high pressure territories, where eerie drone stratums and phantasmal guardians riding atop collide with piercing clickety-clacks. Opiating, nearly ear-bending spirals and overtone voice infused driftscapes of "Epilogue: Ring of Fire" are occasionally percolated by galloping glimpses. A grand finale to splendidly sophisticated recording!!!

"The Radiant Sea", a 74 minutes long album, excels with its creatively peculiar insignias, venturously captivating arrangements and superb sound quality as well as with its meticulously deep concept. This masterwork exquisitely focuses not only on Fukushima nuclear accident and ecological impacts of existing environmental pollution, but also on the mind-blowing mysteries and majestically grandeur beauties of the Pacific Ocean depths. What a journey, bravo, gentlemen!!! I should also mention a limited special 2CDr edition of 60 copies, not for sale, entitled "The Radiant Sea - Additions & Variations" was created by this German duo. It was only available as a free giveaway with little donations to all customers, who ordered the artist copy of Bridge To Imla "The Radiant Sea" CD directly from Michael Brückner or Hans-Dieter Schmidt. Regarding Bridge To Imla project, recommended is also their live 2CDr "One January Evening" presenting additional guests Volker Lankow and Ralph Baumgartl and containing concert, jam session and bonus tracks. Back to "The Radiant Sea" CD, kudos to all involved, this is certainly one of my fave releases on Winter-Light!!!

Richard Gürtler (May 19, 2019, Bratislava, Slovakia)