Review: Exponentia – 'Ghost'

EXPONENTIA
'Ghost'
NERIS RECORDS

Following on from 2013's 'Sadness', France's Exponentia, AKA Ludovic Dhenry releases his latest gothic meets classical opus 'Ghost'. Experimental atmospheres collide with ambient textures and creaking undead vocal strains. 'Sadness' had suffered from sounding somewhat unfinished, as though it were a demo rather than a completed album. Whereas 'Ghost' still sounds a little unfinished again. It is most definitely a fuller release.

The vocals that pepper the release recall the likes of Sopor Aeternus and compliment the slow and dark sounds of the songs. The sonic formula works particularly well on songs such as, 'Deadly Impact', 'Prisoner Of The Painting', 'Soul Escapes', 'Dead-End' and 'Flight Of Souls' where Dhenry holds back from hitting to many high notes on the synth and betraying their cheap digital source. Indeed the more ambient, droning styles of 'Soul Escapes', 'Dead-End' and 'Flight Of Souls' are easily the highlights of the album as they lack the awkward drums of earlier songs and refrain from using the low-fi strings that otherwise give the recording a rather dated sound.

The production is rather clunky, but still rather atmospheric, with plenty of echo and reverb dunning through the mix. It's just the heavy use of synthesized instruments that holds Dhenry back in terms of execution. His compositions are fundamentally solid, he should really just have a classical quartet backing him to get the most from his songs.

'Ghost' is definitely a step-up for Dhenry in terms of both instrumentation and execution, but there is still ground to be gained until Exponentia reaches its full potential as a project. Some acoustic instruments and a bigger recording budget would bring out his best.

Read More

Review: Exponentia – 'Sadness'

EXPONENTIA 

'Sadness' 

NERIS RECORDS 

The sophomore outing for Ludovic Dhenry, AKA Exponentia, is a blend of gothic and classical music. It's something that is often attempted but very rarely achieved, especially on shoestring budgets. The lack of classically trained session musicians mean that many artists opt for the synthesized sounds, and lets face it, if you're not using top end hardware or software it never sounds as good as it would with the real instruments. And yes, this is a reoccurring problem with Exponentia as well. But there are some interesting and redeeming factors to the album.

Firstly, Dhenry is a pretty good composer. Despite the fact that many tracks sound as though they've been pulled from a 90s Playstation RPG soundtrack, they are actually very atmospheric and evocative. Secondly, when the formula is a little more striped back and minimal in its approach it is incredibly haunting, especially when coupled with Dehenry's Gregorian chant style vocals.

Tracks such as 'The Wind Takes Its Life', 'The River Of Your Soul', 'Sadness – Part 2', 'A Shadow Smooths' and 'Finale' are all based around warm, hanging strings with notes flowing into each other smoothly. Sometimes there is a minimal beat, or a strange vocal section or even a juxtaposition of more modern electronic sounds. But they all work really well.

What lets the album down is the use of the wind and choir sounds, which just make the whole album sound dated and low-fi. It's a shame though, because if you listen past these things, the actual compositions are good.

'Sadness' is a very “bare-bones” affair, sounding more like a composer's private demo tape rather than a finished piece. But the fundamentals are undeniably present, and even in this form there are some strong tracks that still work. If you were to let Dhenry into a studio with half a dozen classically trained musicians, the end result would no-doubt be stunning.

Read More