Imagine a cold spring morning; it’s the time of year when the temperature is slowly shifting from the lifeless cold of winter to the gentle, cool breezes of springtime. The light of the sun climbs across the ground and pours through the cracks in your curtains, and a methodical, rising sound lulls you from a deep sleep. Savor the feeling. That is the opening to the debut album from chiptune duo Teleidofusion.

Teleidofusion (teleidofusion.com) hails from Russia and is made up of the combined efforts of chiptune artists C-Jeff and Megus. Already accomplished individually, when combined the artists bring nearly a decade of experience in the internet music market to the new group. In 2006, C-Jeff decided to start organizing his efforts alongside the efforts of other chiptune musicians with his netlabel ubiktune. The label has already seen several solo and collective releases from chiptune artists with seven releases in 2009, the most in a single year yet. Teleidofusion’s debut album, Around Past, marks the 12th release for the up and coming label.

The album’s first song, Soft Illusion, opens with a chiptune and guitar riff that abruptly gives way to the lilting strokes of a piano. The song introduces listeners to the album’s star musical players and the underlying theme of group: electronic fusion of computer- and human-generated sound. The first songs dulcet tones lull one into a reflective mood and from this brooding springs the cool air and bursting colors in 5 Minutes of Autumn. A 8-bit metronome opens as winds and strings build into an atmospheric tune which shifts into a laid back funk theme with some eastern instrumental influences. The myriad mood and instrumental changes washing around each other evokes the enigmatic and shifting colors of a fall day.

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Now we enter the heart and soul of the album, with the guitar driven funk rock of the title track Around Past. The upbeat guitar work runs over crunchy chiptune drums and wailing synth treble. We are presented with some distorted in your face guitar riffs to drive us through the second half of this track before fading back into the clean sounds of the introduction and leading us into my favorite track on the album, Summer Mood. Starting out with one of the catchiest chip/guitar movements I have ever heard on any album. We hit an upswing in the riff and things hit full speed with a fantastic mingling of live and chiptuned instruments that paint an adventurous sunlit day of summer, far removed from the earlier ambiance of spring and fall. In the outro we also get a  mesmerizing chiptune solo before we reach another low key track, みなこ which Google translates simply to “All This.” We are hit with waves of sound, as guitar slowly rises above it. The track drops a heavy mood of depth, as if in a dream, or beneath leagues of ocean. We are also greeted by an interesting interplay between the guitar, and Chris Hampton (chrisjh.com) on alto saxophone.

Classy piano work positioned over minimalistic drums create, Breatin, an intense song that would fit easily in any high end RPG score. Soon the seminal chips and guitar move into place to create that consistent sound throughout the album, while still maintaining the somber mood of sitting at a dim jazz bar thinking about the past. This song is a strong juxtaposition from The follow up track Fat Cat Wants Tasty Fish. Another funked out track which lays the guitar on thick, with big band style chiptune work following along for the ride. A bubbly theme underlies the track as well, as we reach the guitar solo at about a minute in. From the solo we run right into one of the few vocal tracks on the album, which also gives this song it’s namesake. The lyrics are somewhat irreverent and continue the upbeat dance mood of the track with more piano and even a bit of chip organ work weaving it’s way in.

We reach another turning point for the album with the heavy riffage of T.W.W.F. The song plays like a jaded angry version of the previous track at first, but shifts forward into an emotional volley of instruments from every which way. We get a chiptune horn section that adds a lot of strength to the song, not to mention the pulsating blasts of live and synth strings. As we enter the halfway mark the song breaks down into a glitched out melting pot of notes, pulling itself out with some more great rock guitar work which takes the lead and drives the song home until we reach a break down of horns and chips.  After a smorgasbord of genres, we are greeted once again by the waxing tide of dreamlike ambiance in Petite Appetite. A gentle wall of sound turns rises into a bouncing melody, alongside an in your face dose of guitar. The song builds quickly, but fades away into a drum filled second half just as quickly. As the song closes it takes on a very rock oriented feel with live drums and guitar overpowering the chiptune arrangements in the background. The song crashes to a close.

We are quickly greeted with the gentle melody of the final track, the seasonal reprise, Autumn is Calling. The song rolls along nicely, giving off a resolved feeling to the album, almost as if this final track is the credits to the adventure that is Around Past. About a minute in, the song builds to an upbeat, almost unstoppably catchy tune. The most bombast is in store for the end of this track though, as the song continues to shift and rise into an almost symphonic level of instruments and additions until it slowly fades out and we come to a close.

As mentioned, C-Jeff and Megus have been hard at work in the chiptune scene in their home country for some time, but have really stepped things up for this collaboration. You can hear that effort and years of musicianship from the opening sighs of guitar, whilst chip reverberations fade in and out creating a dream like atmosphere of electronic and live instruments. Or as that same mournful guitar changes poles and hits anger filled riffs left and right, while a piano dutifuly responds to every strum of the guitar, when alongside it all, chiptunes blare along for the ride in a symphony of sounds. For any music lover who enjoys their tunes with a worldly air and experimental nature, you would be hard pressed to find anything quite like Teleidofusion.