More than 2 years have passed between Cosmic Waves and STARDUST. A single, Space and Time, has made the new fans of The Fourth Dimension Project wait and while wondering if Cosmic Waves was a flash in the pan. Well, no! In a bunch of tracks that flirt with a lack of homogeneity, Péter Pósafalvi, the man-orchestra behind TFDP, shows a flair for the harmonic aspect in creative musical envelopes that seem to be inspired a bit more by Johannes Schmoelling than Peter Baumann, if not Tangerine Dream.

But sometimes he can put a Techno-Funk between our ears, like with the hungry bass of The Doppler Effect which complements the rhythmic start of the agitated bass-sequences in a dance music mode. I love this battle between the two structures where a throbbing Funk mocks the restlessness of the jumping bass-sequences with an energy gently restrained by anesthetizing synth layers. The oscillating waves structure an energetic phase that leads us to a second part always as catchy where it's the turn of a guitar with dreamy solos to keep the music in its Funk-New Age state. The stars are singing the reincarnated prism on a cosmic bed. Dream of Stars transports us elsewhere with guitar chords unwinding a thread of melancholy in an opening that offers us a morphic down-tempo as the 3rd phase of this lyrical track. There is a lot of material for not even 5 minutes in this ballad, of which the melancholic breaths of Le Parc and this guitar rolling its harmonic solos on the shimmering of a river being gilded by the sun, are the keys of an enchanting universe which is not too difficult to tame. Dark and sad, Back to Life stretches out its keyboard-piano notes with a care to make the hairs on my arms stand up and run. The arrangements are to make the hardest of people sigh in a melodious vision that has nothing to envy to the New Age. It's beautiful from the start. But is this what we wanted? A xylophone-like sequencer opens the first measures of Mirror Dimension. The sound dimension, on the other hand, let us hear a kind of piano carved mechanically a rhythmic line in a haze filled of astral humming. A more lively line emerges after the 40 seconds, bringing the track to a duel between the rhythm and its melody, both sequenced. Resonant chords like those of the Dream's Miramar years are cutting closer to this melody that ventures into a static electronic rock. This electronic rhythm slows down soon enough to resume its opening tune. After a few seconds of hesitation, and a little before the 4th minute, Mirror Dimension then becomes possessed by a spirit of Ricochet's rhythms and takes us back in the 72-73 years with a superb two-faced track. Very good! The first part as the second.

This brings us to Wormhole which wastes no time in releasing its madness through a spasmodic structure that surprises by adding contemporary elements in a 70's cosmic rock frenzied by electronic percussions. The rhythm is catchy and the guitar, the main instrument here, sounds like Edgar Froese's in Force Majeure. The percussions are excellent and creative on this track. An electric guitar on water lapping, it always gives a romantic touch. This is how When the Sun Touches the Sea runs out of its 3 minutes. Space and Time proposes from the beginning an ascending rhythm too animated to be a Berlin School. Animated and static, it serves as a nest for a guitar that performs sober solos on a structure that gradually loses its dynamism some 15 seconds after the second minute. Péter Pósafalvi then graces us with an atmospheric 60 seconds that ends abruptly in a mixture of Reggae and Funk. A jerky rhythm that is quite catchy, conducive to good guitar surges that are not as magical as this bass that makes us lift our feet ... as if we wanted to dance sitting. Hey yes, the flavors of Tangerine Dream are present without any sense 😊! I also like this bass that implants an ambient and absent rhythm in the title-track. Stardust floats between two zones before bursting out for an Electronica not yet mature for dancing but quite comfortable to write more solos for that guitar that has taken over STARDUST's mind since the beginning. And it's a very sad guitar which inaugurates the slow dance that is Sea of Galaxies. These harmonious solos remain nostalgic enough to write a letter to our past and ask it what went wrong so to bring us to where we are now. I like the guitar remains sober between its two tones to distinguish the chorus from the verse. Even that sometimes, it gives me these shivers that feed the soul. Obviously, I expect a change of direction, even if there are less than two minutes left on the dial of STARDUST. A change that brings nothing, even flirting with a more rock essence than Electronica. I would have cut these 90 seconds in order to let Sea of Galaxies continues on its road of melancholy.

A rare misstep in an album full of its charms with its evolving structures. If the changes of direction in some tracks are telegraphed early on, STARDUST's greatest asset is that Edgar's influence on the guitar that sets it apart from Cosmic Waves. Once again, The Fourth Dimension Project shows us without too much difficulty the mastery in its writing which has an unequivocal harmonic flair. And I like this influence of the Dream in these compositions that imitates it to perfection, but in another vision than that of Arc, Redshift and others...

Sylvain Lupari (21th August, 2020)

It took me a while, but I finally got there! Got there to listening this album fully whose homogeneity within each title becomes a disturbing element. It was my friend Nick who put me in the footsteps of The Fourth Dimension Project. This project by a single musician, Péter Pósafalvi, comes to us from Hungary, more precisely from Budapest. Like several artists exhibiting their works on Bandcamp, TFDP was productive when it put its music on the Web in 2016. Seven albums were thus offered between 2016 and 2018, including a Best of TFDP at end of 2017. Since 2018, it's an album a year that Péter offers to EM fans who are keenly interested in Tangerine Dream's descendent. COSMIC WAVES was launched in March 2019. A good album inspired by progressive underground music and by Tangerine Dream which went under the radar and which most certainly deserves to be known.

Ambient Waves will surprise you with its many rhythmic as well as harmonic reversals for a track barely exceeding 9 minutes. First, the guitar! Ambient Waves opens with its dust floating in a black cosmos. The rhythm which surprises it is sculpted in the leaps of bass sequences. Sequences which extend a carpet of reverberations and whose spasms of its roaring firmly fix the base of a rhythm which the keyboard supports by a melody. A melody forged in these luminous sequences and arpeggios jumping in sharp intervals, a bit like in Thief. Percussions, percussive elements and sequences cement the basis of a rhythm that has become neurotic when the guitar solos reinforce the harmonic side which breathes a little bit some Asian tunes. It moves a lot within its first 4 minutes! We are at a stage where the sequences and the percussive effects dance and jump in the harmonious vision of the synth and its chords tingling like the fruits of a xylophone in a good soft-rock performed under the stars. These changes into the structures require a good open-mindedness for anyone who is interested in the music of this album. Except for Colors of the Universe which invites us to a good lunar walk. Interstellar is born from the growing shadows of a sound task which grows around cosmic ambiences. The guitar sculpts good solos with a vision close enough to David Gilmour. The dark waves propel the music towards sober percussions where the loops of the guitar frolic on a slow rhythm that a huge line of bass brings in its groove of cosmic blues. The guitar and keyboard solos make love in the last third of the title and in a wilder vision that will stand without knowing ecstasy. Constellations is too a good lunar ballad led by a guitar and its bundle of dreams wandering in cosmos. This ride reaches a point of no return after 3:20 minutes with a synth layer and its dark shadow which offers a piano structure floating in the cosmic abyss.

A seraphic breeze propels the first movement of Age of the Universe. A piano extends a vision of ancient melody that a flute roots in this perception. I think of Pergamon with this flute which flits in loops on the threat of a bass sequence and its uncertain tremolo. The rhythm that explodes after 3:30 takes a tangent of electronic rock from the Ricochet years with an upward movement of the sequencer and a vampiric melody from the keyboard. The mellotron is effective, but especially the guitar which literally sounds like Edgar did so well in those years. The six-string follows this electronic rock which fills our heads with memories when the rhythm subsides around 8 minutes. A slow rhythm awaits us, concluding a title where the discourse of John F. Kennedy seems inappropriate to me in this good structure which takes us between the phases of the Stratosfear and Force Majeure years to the years of Private Music. A rock guitar brings us into a short phase of spiritual reflection at the opening of Time Spiral. Its chords are in the field of progressive rock, just like this rhythmic ride which settles down with fluty chants from a childish cavalry. The rhythm gallops in an electronic structure well supported by keyboard riffs with TD tones and a good bass line. It runs in the shadows of a mellotron which injects its fluty mist as well as its orchestrations. Suddenly, Time Spiral takes a quite a whole direction with a sequenced flow which makes duel with electronic percussions. This is where guitar and synth solos bring a brief inspiration of electronic rock to this title always molded in the essences of Tangerine Dream of the Jive years.

Meteor Fields is a beautiful soft-rock progressing like a slow spiral dance. Keyboard chords hang around this lunar ballad with tunes and ends of harmonies, as well as some effects, borrowed from the worlds of Legend and Le Parc. The title-track ends this first contact with the music of The Fourth Dimension Project with an approach that sticks to the music of Green Desert. The percussions fall with an echo effect while the synth tunes a vision very close to Shine on you Crazy Diamond. Not that the guitar sounds like! No, it takes unknown paths while the sequencer activates a movement that comes and goes, like this squirrel looking for its booty from last fall. This first phase, more ambient than animated, stops around 5 minutes, while the keyboard dissects a circular rhythm which is lost in a session of percussive clicks. A good moment that will not explode, but will rather lead us into the spheres of an EM without a port to secure its destiny…

Indeed, this COSMIC WAVES is worth stopping at and downloading it for a small $ 8.00 US. It's good EM that requires a little adaptation period, but which ultimately finds its way to please us.

Sylvain Lupari (29th April, 2020)

#synthspotting featured artist #067: The Fourth Dimension Project (Peter Posafalvi) ‘Cosmic Waves’
https://fourthdimension1.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-waves

In the 70’s and 80’s synthesizer music was shining like a diamond. The Fourth Dimension Project aka TFDP is determined to carry on the ancestors’ great work and wants to keep this music style alive. TFDP was founded by Peter Posafalvi in 2005 and plays ambient and Berlin school style, classic electronic music. Its studio operates in Budapest, Hungary.
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What synths/software are used in your release/work?
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“Composing classic electronic music my aim to use several hardware and software synthesizers, my goal is to create a new but familiar sound. I use Logic Pro X as DAW and several software and hardware synthesizers. Currently the following hardware synthesizers are available is my studio: KORG Triton Classic 61, Access Virus Rack XL, Yamaha Music Europe Motif-rack ES. I play the guitar as well; my favorite is Roland VG-99 which is capable of midi conversion too. I used to use Kurzweil Music Systems K2661, Clavia Nord Keyboards Rack 3, Roland V-Synth and Roland GR-33 guitar synthesizer but after a studio renewal I sold them. Software synthesizers are so great nowadays, I use a huge amount of them: NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KOMPLETE 12, Arturia V-Collection 6, Pigments and Vintage Drum Machines (with a Korg padKontrol), Korg Analog and Digital Edition, all Spectrasonics products, a lot of UVI synthesizers, U-HE DIVA, Dune, impOscar2, Steinberg Halion 6, AAS Ultra Analog VA-2, Waves synthesizers (Codex, Element, etc), @Waldorf PPG 2.V and 3.V, Propellerhead Software Europa and Roland Cloud instruments. By the way, Logic’s synthesizers are great as well.”
TFDP
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What is your favourite hardware or software synth and why?
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“I have no favorite hardware synthesizer, I love all of them for different reasons. My favorite software synthesizers are UVI Falcon with its crystal-clear sounds and effects, DIVA with its true analog sounds and Roland JV-1080 with its vintage sounds. The all-time favorites are Spectrasonics’s Omnisphere with Keyscape and Trilian, and Stylus RMX of course.”
TFDP
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What synth would you buy if you could?
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“It would be great to buy a Roland JD-XA and a Moog Music Inc. One, those are awesome instruments.”
TFDP
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Tell us a little bit about your production technique
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“The heart of my studio is an iMac Pro connected to a Universal Audio Apollo 8 Duo and a UAD-2 Satellite. I used to use Steinberg Cubase but later a changed to Logic Pro. In my opinion both of them are fantastic DAWs with excellent features. Effects are essential parts of my studio work, UAD plugins are amazing, but there are other excellent ones by UVI, Waves Audio, Eventide, Soundtoys, PSPaudioware, Lexicon Pro and Plugin Alliance. I use hardware effects; my personal favorites are Strymon DIG and BigSky. In some respects, DIG is not only an effect but a kind of instrument as well, you can create really interesting rhythmic patterns with it. Because I am a guitar player, I have a Roland Ready Stratocaster guitar with a Roland VG-99 virtual guitar system. A MOTU Midi Express XT is responsible for the MIDI part, and a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro is integrated into my studio.”
TFDP
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Tell us a bit about your releases
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“I have several music ideas. Although I have just published my latest album Cosmic Waves, this summer I am starting to work on new compositions which will be part of a new album probably next year. I love hardware and software synthesizers evenly; I am sure I am going to use them on each following albums.”
TFDP
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Find out more about and support TFDP here:

Website - https://www.tfdp.eu/
Bandcamp - https://fourthdimension1.bandcamp.com
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/tfdpofficial
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/4DHungary?feature=mhee
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thefourthdimensionproject/

Paul Darlington (15th August, 2019)