Music Collection
Throughout their career, The Roswell Incident has produced an eclectic mix of studio and live recordings that are synonymous with their signature sound and attest to the depth and diversity of their creativity. Discover the discography below.
The Crash
Berlin School will always have new followers who will renew and will perpetuate the genre, years after years. Who didn’t hear about the Roswell affair? This supposed crash of an UFO near Roswell in New Mexico piqued the curiosity of the American people and many others curious around the world since 1947. It’s part of the myths and contemporary legends. Well … There is also another Roswell affair and the Crash origins this time from Belgium, with as aliens the Buytaert brothers. Composed of 3 long tracks drawn from the influences of Berlin School, The Roswell Incident’s "The Crash" is a splendid album moulded in the creative imprints of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. An album which has passed totally unnoticed in 2010, like what there isn't only the O.V.N.I. that we don’t see.
Powerful mellotron layers draw a slow and dark morphic movement to shape a gorgeous pre-apocalyptic atmosphere and open "Open Your Eyes". They float and dance with an oniric slowness, perturbed by scattered eclectic percussions and pulsations as well as sequences which zigzag in a puzzling way. A synth sings and chants a hardly audible dialogue, where we can hear the phrase Open Your Eyes, in a synth and mellotron symbiosis which reaches its peak towards the 10th minute....
Hunted
Second cd from The Roswell Incident. Top-notch Berliner Schule, or shall we say Ghent Schule since these guys are coming from Ghent and they create fat electronic carpets with awesome sequencers !
"Hunted", presented at the Belgium B-Wave Festival in December 2013, is the second chapter of the trilogy which started with "The Crash" in 2010. While its cover is kept in the same style, its sonic narrative extends beautifully on the mysterious/darker-flavoured spheres, vibrant Berliner School sequencing and various vintage soloiing that marked the first one. Once again, Koen and Jan Buytaert take the listener on a highly cinematic journey, sketching lengthy scenes of alien lifeforms hunted down after the initial crash in three long tracks. The first piece "Hunted down on a misty morning" is the oldest one made around 2008, which is complemented by two tracks made in more recent times. The second and third track though are more consistent and also stronger composition and soundwise, raising the quality bar quite a bit in my opinion. One can actually sense the delicate scent of menace and something foreboding running underneath on both "A Stranger in a Strange World" and "Dark Hiding". All in all, this 78-minute album is for all fans with a knack for slow evolving tracks that start out with long intros of moody/gloomy soundscaping and fx’s, which later get company of driving retro sequencers and solo voices occasionally. During the whole cinematic ride, a nice vintage melange is present. I just wished the soundlevel of the whole release was quite a bit higher.
© Bert Strolenberg
Escape
I adore this tone of flute enchantress which extricates itself from the claws of nothingness! It sings a seraphic ode and its solitary charms call other flutes, shier, to join in and give a small concert of soft oniric breezes. There is a delicate gradation in these ambient melodies, so that the intro slightly touches at times some ephemeral dramatic moods which remind me the birth of Ricochet 's muddled rhythms. This gives more relief to this ambiospherical painting which bickers constantly with ethereal elements. The astral singings dress of sibylline harmonies when the sparklings to the metallic reflections dilute the songs of the flutes in order to bring "Escape I" towards a more intense passage where the ambio-cosmic moods bring to life a structure of beat which staggers in an awkward way at the 5th minute spot. And this relatively ambient pace draws a kind of slow morphic cha-cha which dances beneath a thick cloud of synth layers painted of prismic breezes and of lascivious violin veils. The moods become then ambio-cosmic and decorate a slow sequenced walking where are whistling and blowing a thick cloud of astral colors synth lines. The beat of "Escape I" sways hips like a spirit in a soporific trance in a garden of honey where stars are within reach. The synth pads are as much in love as ethereal and their caresses are comforting a hearing which waits for the rhythm to become more accentuated. And the nothingness sucks up the sounds elements.....
Adrift
This album is the start of a new series or trilogy featuring further highly atmospheric and cinematic music by the Belgium duo Koen and Jan Buytaert.
The soundscape entrance of “Adrift” is beautiful and dense, leading the listener into a surreal, uncanny world existing somewhere beyond imagination. The subtle glowing sphere is set in motion near the 10-minute mark, soon followed by some subdued choir, vocoder voices and a series of happy synth notes. In the second half, Berlin School influences start to surface as the sequencer patterns step forward, shift gear and a soaring solo kicks in.
The Roswell Incident is strong at painting imaginary landscapes (both character and approach don’t stray far from some output by the Dutch project Wave World) with just free form, in-depth textures, as happens on the gentle evolving “Reaching the speed of light”. Here it’s again the second half where things are set in motion while the sphere thereafter maintains a mysterious realm.
“In search of the ancient dominion” (the last of the three expansive tracks) kicks of with a minimalist sequence, further evolving a bit like early Bernd Kistenmacher but sounding more varied. Near the end of the 17-minute track, the sounddesign becomes more poignant while the sequences shift to higher gear. The previous two pieces though sound more confident, captivating and solid to my ears. I hope The Roswell Incident will continue in that spirit on their next endeavour.
Bert Srolenberg
www.sonicimmersion.org.
Trapped part one
Same as on their previous albums Koen and Jan Buytaert chose to compose lengthy electronic pieces for their new project “Trapped”. This time around, the release is a well-deserved factory-pressed cd on Wool-E Discs imprint Belgian NeuMusic. Still present is the highly cinematic, mystic-angled current in their attentively crafted, often improvised atmospheric music gently transporting the listener in spacious dimensions and alternate realities beyond.
The outcome, still derived from and inspired by classic ‘70’s Berlin School music (of Schulze especially), evolves gradually and retains an introspective yet reflective character most of the time while the duo incorporates various sets of mellow sequencer patterns over time. The latter become more upfront in the outro section of the 33-minute first track and about halfway on the next.
A kaleidoscope of alienating, slightly ominous spaces set off on the 43-minute ambient journey following next. This dense aural cocoon -some passages reminded me Wave World- is smoothly set in motion after eight minutes, whereafter the morphing soundscape opens up gradually. Further spatial sound design, some captivating sets of minimalist sequences patterns as well as a brief solo kick in on the more dynamic second half to both hypnotic and splendour effect. It makes an excellent outro for this very well accomplished mixed and produced work of art.
All in all, “Trapped” offers music that naturally continues the band thread of their previous releases but takes it to a higher level simultaneously. To get the best out of it, headphones are recommended.
Bert Strolenberg www.sonicimmersion.org.