I had to refresh myself (both by reading a review and listening to the music) why I liked Stars Wept to the Sea by Unreqvited so much. There is just so much music that passes through your hands when you have an opportunity to be a reviewer, it is difficult to remember it all. An attempt to recall the album led to another pleasant moment of experiencing it and then I knew exactly why I scored Stars Wept to the Sea as a Surprise of the Month. The interesting battle between grinding guitars, expansive synthesizers and shoegazing blackened melodies was the key to success.

Mosaic I: l’amour et l’ardeur , the next album in Unreqvited growing discography, was billed as a more orchestral, ambitious effort, in which little black metal traces remained, yet it was still going to traverse both highest mountains and deepest valleys. It is true that there are no more grating riffs to be found on Mosaic and shrieked vocals, which were few to begin with, have been completely expunged from the music. The album is probably 99% instrumental, and in place of vocals there are some exalted ah-ohs (Dreamscape). Voices, however, aren’t the main ingredient of Mosaic, and are a mere supplement to something which has firmly moved into post-black territory. Full of rich synth fabric, Unreqvited is indeed making a good use of polyphonic multilayered shoegaze melodies, something for example definitively emerging at the end of Dreamscape or middle Eastern character at the end of Radiant. Permeated by Alcest-like euphoria Mosaic is based on constantly rising warmth. The warm enveloping air of the album never stops rising. It is if the air balloon created by Unreqvited is endless in its supply. Sunrise indeed represents sunrise and was perfect to listen to on a beautiful Indian summer day, when nature was still alive and happy. Speaking of nature, Mosaic could very well serve as a soundtrack to nature documentary, for as long as the nature is shown as blissful and happy. Radiant is literally a time lapsed video of flowers blooming, while Balance with its chirping birds is set more in some marine or aqueous environment.

Where Mosaic doesn’t quite adhere to the promise, and is positively different from Stars Wept to the Sea, it is absolutely devoid of conflict. Since positivity is the name of the game here, I can’t find any of those bottomless valleys on the album. Dreamy in Permanence is hardly contrasted by more thunderous , yet still dreamy, disposition. Everything in the end is an ebbing Doppler effect reaching dramatic levels. Serenity sets in after some double bass in Balance, yet I continuously feel the positive sugar high emotion. And growing ivory notes with twangy guitars, as well as syncopated beginning of Radiant, is hardly a point of contrast or a fight of some kind, although the end of that composition is probably the harshest moment on the album.

If you believe in brightness and light as a constant dropback for the music you want to hear, there will be nothing that can beat Mosaic. Perhaps the pink colors on the cover should have given it away. A-cup-totally-full person will not put this down. A realist and pessimist in me likes to brood more to the music, thus Stars Wept to the Sea appealed more to me on the personal level, although I could hardly fault Mosaic for its flawless execution and ambitious design.