Tracks recorded between 1997 and1999.

Music composed and performed by Remy.

24 Bit - 96 kHz digitally mastered by Wouter Bessels.

Those who know me and who read me on Guts of Darkness know in which point I loathe rereleases of these uncountable boxed-sets which exploit the same theme without adding anything really concrete to the initial musical project. I love Remy, as well as his music which tergiversates constantly in the analog/digital fusion era of Klaus Schulze. If the period of Inter*Face, Dreams, En=Trance, Miditerranean Pads and even In Blue fed abundantly your ears, the trilogy of Exhibition of Dreams will manure them even more. Because it is well and truly there that Dutch synthesist music is situated. Melodious variations on dream and its meanders nightlife theme, it’s at the end of 1999 that appeared the very first edition of EoD. Initially recorded on Mini-Disc and without overdubs, EoD saw the day on a very limited edition. The impact was rather significant for those who discovered Remy’s sound universe, starting a passion for fans that saw in Remy a Schulze disciple. A more poetic Klaus Schulze who respected his composition frames far from the improvised sessions of the German Master. Ten years later, Remy’s label (AKH Record) decides to emphasize the release of this album which became out of print too quickly. In last November, a single cd recuting a selection of Remy was release. Two months later, the total! A triple boxed-set including the 1st edition, remastered with the technology of nowadays recording, and a bonus cd in including 6 musical pieces wrote during that same area which, with an incredible musical precision, exploits the unexplained labyrinths and vagaries of dreams.

Such a slide in a night which will be shaken by dreams to random divinations, Into the Dream brings us in a soft musical universe with hesitating bass chords, encircled by fine arpeggios ready to fly in a night of thousand torments. Those who, like me, tasted the summary work will find the soft poetic lines of Entering the Dream with the hesitating approach of the slumber dance. A rhythm constantly held by a synth to spectral breaths and a keyboard with keys situated between an acoustic guitar and a harpsichord to crystal clear and pinched notes. The percussions fall, without ever smashing anything. A little as not to disturb the sleep tranquility, while the synth dresses its most beautiful oniric approaches, before moving us with this melody so for a long time buried in the lightness of the sleep which introduces this long night of dreams. Mirage attacks the night with more vigor. A long title to progressive rhythms, locked into a sphere of night-schizophrenia. On the other hand, this version is more ethereal and poetic than the one on the special edition, freeing a suave perfume of soft night bird madness. Lost Forces (Velocity) follows the rhythmic tangent which develops since Into the Dream. Very similar to Mirage, the pace is however more fervent and circulates nervously in a ghostly universe, shaped by a subtle line of bass to nail-biting pulsations and a synth to nightmarish waves. Luna (Lunascape) calms down the play with magnificent sequential spiral which swirls lasciviously, creating an effect of hypnosis, under a synth filled of a spawn of strata as disquiet as lyrical and where the rhythm beats slightly, as an ode to the moon and its secrets. Distant xylophone arpeggios from out of the nowhere, introduce The Fields of Infinity that hiccups under rolling percussions. Percussions become metallic and slamming which always follow the sequential xylophone approach that fade with the arrival of an acoustic guitar to fine harmonious chords. Obsessed that we are, we have difficulty in noticing this adorable fusion of chords of a divinely charming synth which oscillates slowly behind this harmonious duality which plunges towards a fervent finale where we regret bitterly the short length of this title.

Unidentified Dreaming Objects is a long epic track that breathes of this approach night bird which is the premise of EoD and of which we perceive all the sequential approach which lies in it. A long title which seems to be a summary of the cd 1, but with a more poetic approach with notes of acoustic guitars which measure to morphic synthesized strata, or still of piano spawning under the influence of a synth to somber rotary waves. The rhythm clings to this sequence to stealthily chords, shaping to a fine line of bass which seems to go out of nocturnal oblivion. It goes and strikes where it needs, leaving all the room to captivating mellotron strata, to salvos of synth tinted of symphonic waves flooded in soporific choruses and its wonderful oniric chords of guitar and solitary piano. Very different from Silent Conversations, Silent Voices is a marvel of solicitude and solitude which blooms beneath a soft piano of which notes embrace notes of a crystalline keyboard, where discreet percussions become the witnesses of this strange harmony of a duality between softness and disturbing dream. A superb track that bursts as much the soul as the lachrymal glands, of which reminiscences drag far beyond the uncoordinated rhythms of Out of the Dream.

If you already own EoD, know that the cd offered in bonus with this new edition is everything a find. Some very beautiful Remy who navigates comfortably any seas, as serene as eventful. Metroid starts this collector's item with fine flutes of blowpipes to sharp breaths of which the echo is shaping in a synth to circular and hesitating waves. Waves which float, as leaves falling from tree, among xylophone keys to nervous striking to which couple tam-tam percussions that strengthening a cadence of which the agitation soaks in a hybrid statism rhythmic. The structure becomes warmer with a synth of which fluty strata become entangled with symphonic breaths on a warm bass line which nuances subtly Metroid rhythmic envelope. Darker, poetic and enigmatic, Silent Voices Part II progresses to weak stealthily on a structure more amber than her big sister. A sweet reverie on a much sharpened synth and oniric tinkled sparkling. Strata to dense orchestrations which cogitate under loud striking notes of pianos, Waiting for Dusk takes us in a night of tormented dreams with strikes of piano which cry under fanciful violins, before taking a tangent where dream recedes nightmare in a sound sphere filled with fluty mellotrons and xylophone keys on a tormented structure. A great musical drama! After a finality where the duality of harmonies makes more complex The Fields of Infinity, The Cave plunges us into an atonal atmosphere with an intriguing approach. The atmosphere is biting and soaks into a world of ether where the madness nightlife watches for us in every heterogeneous tone. A strange title which looks for comfort among lost spirits. The Storm concludes this beautiful bonus cd with a long minimalism procession where the intensity is deploying with nuance, respecting the premises of Schulze’s works, in harmonies which is the reflection of the duality between the dream and the nightmarish approach that is Exhibition of Dreams.

As for me, Exhibition of Dreams is a magnificent musical piece of anthology. The kind of work which marks time and which will leave all of its traces for coming years. The sound, the compositions, the approach sometimes dramatic sometimes melodious on structures at once minimalism and uncoordinated, make of this work a musical monument which explains all beauties and subtleties of the EM art.

29.04.2010. Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness, Planet Origo
Read the French version of the review here.
____________________________________________________________________________________________