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Multi-instrumentalist Forrest Fang does not seem to recognize any creative limit. Continuing to present a persistent, unfailing skill and vision Perihelion (72:16) is yet another advance in a decades-long run of artistic promise. Journeying over new terrain toward new territory - lands nowhere to be found on any map - we encounter a realm of mysterious space, contrasts of scale and bold use of harmony and timbre. Pushing slowly through a dreamy ethereal doorway into mind and mood Perihelion is alternately dark and dense, then delicate and benign. Producing passages of mystic bliss reverberant chords move cloud slow as glowing tones flex and fade out beneath the weight of starlight. As a means to convey the enigmatic essence of a world apart such variances make for a compelling voyage - one that may never reach any shore, sooner settling us serenely within the vastness of our own dreams. Throughout its ten tracks Perihelion grows in depth and beauty. While one piece will run its sequencer skyward, another drifts us calmly inward. In moments of enlivening percussive pulsations attendees will synchronize with the sound, only to untether darkly further in under night-black ambient atmospheres and eccentric electric textures. In certain places you are offered comfort, in others inspiration. In chapter after chapter this album unfolds across a conceptual arc, lifting the listener from the region of the commonplace to that of the imagination. Each kind of music comes with its own way of thinking. As with anything to do with Forrest Fang, his work is his own potent assertion of life - expressed in a voice quite unlike any other.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 30 January 2025 |
