Tassi and Kesys collaborate on a brand new split.
The meeting between Chinese musician Dryad (Bliss-Illusion) and Frenchman Jeff Grimal (Spectrale, Prisme, ex-The Great Old Ones, ex-Demande à la Poussière…) gave birth to Sky Asset.
Tassi opens the ball with Arissa, a soft and ethereal introduction to which the musician adds a few whispers, easily recreating his recognizable airy touch, then hands over to his counterpart for Crossing Paths, a much longer and more mysterious track that begins with a few acoustic guitar harmonics. The melody naturally weaves and ventures into tones that are sometimes a little more dissonant or darker, hypnotizing us as it moves along, eventually adopting a few disturbing and impressive notes after a while, but Jeff returns to minimalism before his riffs burst into flames. He gives way to Dryad for Arissa II and its peaceful simplicity, which develops as much in the instrumental as in the vocals, making the moment quite reassuring despite the language barrier. This tranquility lives on in our minds until the very end, when Kesys follows suit with A Distant Glow, which already resonates. The ambient keyboard sound evokes more mystical elements, reinforced by the percussion that appears next and intensifies the track, bringing with it more and more instruments, such as the haunting synthesizers that punctuate the progression until the heavy guitar in the background, but Arissa III puts an end to it. We find that almost innocent tenderness that doesn’t take long to envelop us again, and even the central storm will struggle to pull us out of it, marking a slight acceleration in the rhythm to finally join The Hollow Between Us, an outro that first presents a stripped-down guitar and a few vocal samples before Jeff‘s voice integrates into it accompanied by Boris Doussy (vocals) and Benoit Gateuil (bass), creating a unique enchanting touch that leads to an unexpected Trip-Hop beat that suddenly stops to leave us facing silence.
Impossible to pigeonhole in one style, Tassi and Kesys both have a unique universe that they expose to us here without frills. Sky Asset is undoubtedly a sincere and distinctive project, which we would even like to see as the beginning of a new story.
80/100
