The starting point of the year 2021 is magnified by the publication of this wonderful album by the Italian solo-act TourdeForce, impersonated by the brilliant and eclectic mastermind Christian Ryder.
The new full-length “Vargtimmar” represents a further advancement in the technological style of the project, which since its distant beginnings has been characterized by a remarkable conceptual intelligence and melodious electronic procedures, introducing now further elements that in some chapters make the musics more aggressive and acidly alienating.
The tracklist, consisting of thirteen songs, is a succession of different emotions and extraordinary sonic perceptions, in which we can find the unmistakable, harmonious, melancholic beauty of synthpoppish harmonies, the danceable dynamism of EBM and some romantically neoclassical interludes, occasionally combined with the electric and heavy power of industrial – electro rock guitarism, all in a triumph of energy and incisiveness.
Midtempo / downtempo / uptempo drum-programming, sequencers hatches, catchy keyboard symphonies and euphonic vocals, make up the most typically ‘TourdeForcing’ section of the new album, while the innovative and experimental episodes are played by an incandescent chant and by the abrasive metrics of instrumentality, embellished as always by the explicit and subliminal meanings of the texts. “Vargtimmar” is yet another evolutionary form of TourdeForce, a multifaceted, immersive and soulful album that perfectly reflects the soul of outsider Christian Ryder, one of the most inspired explorers of Italian alternative electronic scene. This is an unmissable release. You will be fatally attracted to it.