Many different moods are explored, each one in vivid color. Everything from blissful mellow numbers to melancholy and sad, or angry storms.
Many different moods are explored, each one in vivid color
This is a very dense piece of work that defines itself in a number of ways. Almost like a file director, Frank Riggio seems to have arranged each track so that the chosen instrumentation, the effects applied to it, and the technique used to play all combine with the melodies to create a very intense and dramatic scene. Over and over throughout the tracks of the album (the first in a trilogy), elaborate scenes emerge from nowhere, using any and all elements the director feels necessary. Strings, synthesizers, pianos, distorted noise (and more) are all called on when necessary—not unlike a Pink Floyd arrangement. Many different moods are explored, each one in vivid color. Everything from blissful mellow numbers to melancholy and sad, or angry storms. It’s quite a journey and does not unfold in the slow thematic way familiar in ambient albums but instead more like an intense rock-opera, moving through scenes at a relentless pace. The closest comparisons I can think of would be more akin to the prog metal bands Opeth or King Gizzard, maybe Oneohtrix Point Never at his most hyper—definitely for lovers of emotionally intense, high energy music.
Empreinte Musicale 1 is available on Bandcamp. [Website]
