Adriatique, Stephan Jolk, and label bosses Tale Of Us embark on a dystopian journey between realities where the boundaries of space and times fade into Afterlife signature emotional sounds. This is what Afterlife @ Tomorrowland Around The World 2021 is all about.
Kicking the journey off with Afterlife’s wonderboy Stephan Jolk, plucked and dreamy melodic arpeggio flows over an ethereal bassline meanwhile the severe crescendo set the ground for the next series of hypnotic harmonies and soothing synth works. Everything is driven by the mesmeric optic effect that transports the listener into this limbo where music and visuals are the masters. The set is an explosion of stunning dancefloor creations with chunky percussion and sonic inflections that evolve into an array of unique emotions delivered directly into your soul. Different elements collide, and emotional reactions fill the gaps. Whether in peak time mode or with more subdued atmospheres, Stephan demonstrates his mastery of melody and cinematic sound design, setting the bar from here and what is to come.
Adriatique, on the other end, delivers sixty minutes of mesmerizing melodies, billowing chords, and masterfully executed transitions, delivered in fine style. Soaring melodies alternate with euphoric high achieving an enthralling dancefloor frame, with lead synth lines and ethereal and transportive soundscapes. Perfectly balancing ethereal and transportive moments with darker and more sinister times, Adriatique performance has been the ideal bridge between the “old” beloved techno sound, made by clean and gloomy beats, with warm, fluid synths, heavy, tribal drums, and melodic leads, all of which are both pleasant and unsettling.
Last but not least, Tale Of Us drive the fans to the end of this surreal adventure where romantic, sexy, and passionate elements collide with dystopic, monumental, and noble sounds. Moving between vibrant harmonies, fleeting vocal samples, and fluttering synths Tale Of Us provide a pleasing electronic creation that’s steeped in otherworldly emotion. Combining Anyma‘s progressive tones, with a percolating low end, emotive synth stabs and moments of deep contemplation and MRAK’s intense compositions coming from analog machinery, improvisation, modulations, and digital sequences the duo step up their sound in an unconventional way.
The whole three-hour experience is an immersion in a total acoustic and visual adventure. The limits of musical genres fade away into a celebration of what Afterlife encompasses. Slow-release euphoria, patient progression, dubby chords, eerie vocal, piercing synth. Everything is perfectly balanced equally: epic, dreamy, dark, and bright for a journey above and beyond the consciousness that reaches your soul.
All the performances, as well as the whole Tomorrowland digital festival 2021, are available via the festival’s official website here.
