Fazio :: Élégie (Faith Strange)

Elégie is music of comfort, succor for the weary and perhaps the lonely. It succeeds in being free and amorphous while instantly accessible and engrossing.

[Release page] Élégie is comprised of three, relatively long pieces, electric guitar textures bookending a piano piece, following a new “personal musical tangent” Mike Fazio intends on continuing to pursue on coming releases, one which seems to have been staked out as much the result of cogitation on music as on literature and philosophy, given the mentions of Kafka and Kierkegaard in the liner notes (enclosed in one of the season’s most lovely package designs). He has a long career experimenting rather extravagantly with the guitar behind him, but Élégie is a personal and intimate work and I think something of a celebration of the Italian heritage of the New York City native, nostalgic, romantic and fond.

“Il Sognatore È Ancora Addormentato” has a warm, hand-molded atmosphere. Fazio polishes notes hewn out of the most conventional of rock instruments, until they transform utterly, like ice into water. Couplets from Matthew Arnold’s “Longing” are recited, out of order and repetititvely, a fever dream beautifully couched in a phantasmagorical shimmer. With “Dopo Tre Mesi, Tutto è Lo Stesso, Eccetto Un Piccolo Regalo, Quando Arriva L’inverno, Più Disappunti È Dispiacere,” the piano is the narrative voice, clear and clarion, melody hinging on improvisation, with the quiet squall of guitar ambience gusting far in the background, lending the piece impressive depth.

Finally, “Mélodia Per Una Memoria (Faded Now And Half Remembered)” swells and crests in wave after wave, a series of calm troughs that peak with a flourish of exhaltation. Several of these crests toss up the voice of Enrico Caruso, the first international recording star. Deep beneath a sea of crafty turbulence in this melody for a memory, the guitar sounds more palpable than previously on the album, as if to remind you of its presence and centrality.

Elégie is music of comfort, succor for the weary and perhaps the lonely. It succeeds in being free and amorphous while instantly accessible and engrossing.

Élégie is available on Faith Strange. [Release page]