What is special about Franck’s releases is that they are always a little different and this release moves even further afield from psychill of earlier releases. The title and artwork create a feeling of soft ambience. The music, on the other hand, is also reflecting this. It is balanced with a bouncier feel and a bit darker edges.

Tracklist:
1. The Beginning (free) 04:53
2. Smooth 04:57
3. The happy faces 03:59
4. Electric city 05:02
5. After the Rain 05:37
6. A Waking Dream 04:27
7. I’m Still Sleeping 04:41
8. Signal from Space 05:11
9. You are the Stars 04:25
10. Melancholia 04:43
11. The Midnight Hour 04:58
12. At the End 03:19

The opening track “The Beginning” starts in a field recording manner with a gentle running stream and gentle keys, but is soon joined by deep bass chords and a twitchy IDM beat. However, it doesn’t stop there halfway through it shifts gear and sets a tone for the album in the sense there’s a lot happening in the track, yet, at no point seems out of place i.e. an almost but not quite industrial techno loop is injected overlapped by a peaceful flute.

This trend of bouncy ambience continues with some nice vocal samples in “Smooth” while “Happy Faces” contrasts deep atmospheric synths. The next track “Electric City” is giving a more spacey feel to the album and the sense that you’re travelling to your subconciousness.

The next few tracks drop the tempo as if you’re drifting back into the dream. The title track, for example, is a lovely guitar affaire. While “I’m Still Sleeping” starts with a vocal sample, developing with a synthetic marching band feel interjecting the ambient sounds. Again there’s a turn of pace with a techy driving backdrop counterbalanced with flutes and again nothing sounds out of place.

The theme of the album then takes the dream firstly into space, followed by sadness in much the same manner of bouncy ambience with a turn of pace before reaching the nightmare of “The Midnight Hour” which starts in an ambient techno manner with lots of little overlapping loops and a wonderful guitar. Then unexpectedly comes a vocal intro sample from probably the most famous “Spooky” pop track of all time.

We agree that this album will probably take a few listens to really appreciate fully, as there’s plenty going on within the tracks and the production is of a high quality.*

You can listen, buy and download this chillout music in wave, apple lossless (alac), flac or mp3 from:
http://kickbong.bandcamp.com/album/a-waking-dream

*Full review by Woodzee: http://sunisshiningdubnchill.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/kick-bong-waking-dream-review.html