Troy Schafer – Evening song awaken

Troy Schafer – Evening song awaken

(Neo) Classical, Violin, drones

Label – Recital Three
http://www.recitalprogram.com/

The desire towards joy
1 Cycle I
2 Cycle II
3 Arpeggios
The spring of instinct
4 Cycle I
5 Cycle II
6 Let the corpse of the mind lie unburied on the edge of the great sea!
7 Faint fresh fire

‘Evening song awaken’ presents Troy Schafer, who stands behind projects like Compass hour, Kinit Her, Rain drinkers and probably more), in a somewhat naked form. I am not talking about the cover art, which shows a beautiful green passage, I am talking about Schafer’s music, which is stripped to the essence, in this case, as a mellow, beautiful, relentless, violent and/or entrancing violin playing. There are other sounds in this evening song awakening, including but not limited to piano and soft bells, if I am not mistaken, in the gracefully closing track ‘Faint fresh fire’, but it is as clear as the desire towards joy that the main ideology on this album belongs to Schafer’s violin, which endures everything from soft caressing to outright shredding on different parts of the album.

Schafer also moves between themes and chapters in his music, as he divides it into cycles and chapters. The Arpeggios part of the opening “The desire towards Joy”, ends this chapter with a soft, long musical blessings, which softly glides and vibrates through the room. It is sharply replaced by the next part, the opening of the spring of instinct, in a piercing, swift and dramatic display of violin strokes, which seem to tell a story, or rather serve as the exposition to such a story. ‘Evening song awaken’ keeps on changing its themes and surprises the listeners with more angles and further incisions into Troy’s playing. I am not too knowledgeable about classical music, but I believe that at least some parts (not including the wonderful ending for track number six, which melts the mind and frees the body) of the album may appeal to traditional classical music fans, as well as to many fans of more abstract, droning genres of contemporary music. If you are one of these fans, and I suggest you get this album immediately.