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Fracture 8:070:00/8:07
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Idyll 1:130:00/1:13
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Departed 8:220:00/8:22
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Mechane 1:280:00/1:28
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Slipstream 9:480:00/9:48
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Remembrance 1:480:00/1:48
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Friction 7:370:00/7:37
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Zephyr 2:180:00/2:18
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Rapture 21:590:00/21:59
ARC - Chronicle (DiN89)
Live albums have always been a big feature of the DiN imprints output with many of its releases featuring performances by label boss Ian Boddy either solo or in conjunction with other artists. Seven such albums have been as the duo ARC with Boddy alongside his friend and musical collaborator Mark Shreeve who sadly passed away in 2022. Their show at E-Live in The Netherlands from 2007 was the only concert of theirs so far unreleased and hence Chronicle (DiN89) is both here to fill that gap and to provide a reminder of the power this duo could create in a live setting.
This concert was unusual in that ARC used it as a chance to showcase their recently released album Fracture (DiN28) and indeed the duo constructed their set around the five tracks from that album, interlinked by short ambient passages. Underpinning the rhythmic elements of each piece is the huge Moog modular utilised by Mark over the years to such sensational effect, not only in the ARC project but his band Redshift. In creating that Berlin School sound this system is the real deal and under his skilled sequencing the pieces have an organic life that breathe and can grow from a tiny staccato rhythm to a huge growl in seconds. Over this structure Boddy and Shreeve layer atmospheric effects, warm chordal motifs and blistering solo lines. The concert culminates in the sensational 22 minute epic track Rapture which begins with spacey, drifting atmospheres before chordal Mellotrons add a sense of the grandiose. This just lulls the audience into a sense of calm before those sequencers thunder in to produce a truly hypnotic and incredible sonic climax.
Chronicle is a testament to the music of ARC but more particularly in remembering Mark Shreeve who left us all way too early.