The Mysteries by orchestramaxfieldparrish

released September 4, 2020

produced by Mike Fazio


Special one time pressing compilation Double CD including After The Rain & The Mysteries is also available.


orchestramaxfieldparrish - The Silent Breath Of Emptiness (CD by Faith Strange)
orchestramaxfieldparrish - presents AERA (2CD by Faith Strange)
orchestramaxfieldparrish - Crossing Of Shadows (CD by Faith Strange)

All right first of all, I know I set some 'rules' when it comes to reviewing old stuff and so, when I wrote in Vital Weekly 1054: "Did I hear of orchestramaxfieldparrish before? I don't recall, and it is a strange name, so I would have probably remembered, I guess. This is another project by Mike Fazio, who works also as A Guide For Reason and Sonic Arts Society, though I know him best under his first moniker", it wasn't an exactly an invitation to get his much older releases, but Fazio offered them anyway to send to me as mp3, just to check out, not to review, but lo and behold, he didn't find the mp3s but then send me the three first releases, that followed 'Tears', his debut in 2002. Sucker that I am, I feel obliged to do a full pay back and review them anyway. I played them in the order they were released. Or not.

On 'The Silent Breath Of Emptiness' the guitar is the primary instrument, an electric one,and, so I assume, there is most likely quite a few audio processors, mainly the delay pedals at work here, along of course with a dashing amount of reverb. All of this was recorded live in the first four parts of this, while the fifth piece is a studio reconstruction using those parts in a different configuration. With his electric guitar and sound effects, plus what I assume is an e-bow, regular bow or otherwise methods of getting his strings to sustain on some end, Fazio creates quite dark atmospheric music here, and it is not something that is without any force. In the third part his guitar sounds like an organ at times and towards the end almost like a conveyer belt, but it's not in anyway industrial music. In the other pieces Fazio takes the Fripp textbook on how to play ambient guitar quite literal and he does a great job, adding his own
slightly darker and experimental edge to it. The reconstruction doesn't sound too different from the other four pieces, and I might be missing a point here as to the nature of the piece; it seems a bit denser, with a few more layers, but otherwise not too different.

'Presents æra', in with the first A and E are glued together is a double pack and sees the expansion of the sound of orchestramaxfieldparrish, through the use of field recordings, synthesizers and rhythm, all sitting next to the use of the guitars. I am not entirely sure what 'Presents Aera' means, as both discs have a separate title; maybe this was the (false?) start of a new name? I am not sure, as it also seems a one-off in his catalogue. From the lot that I heard first, a few weeks ago, I got the idea that orchestramaxfieldparrish was indeed all a bit orchestral like and that is the feeling that I have here too, especially on the first disc, which has a great variety in orchestral approaches; not only with a piece that contains rhythm, as in 'Ennoae', but also with the sampling of string sounds and playing a kind of Arvo Pärt like clusters of sound.

On the second disc it seems as if Fazio returns to the world of ambient music, and it's just not just the titles, '1/1', '2/1' etc. that reminded me of Brian Eno's first ambient record; the use of vocals, humming quietly yet choir like does the same thing. Yet Fazio knows how to give a bit of edge, through a mild form of distortion here and there.

'Crossing Of Shadows' was already recorded in 2006, but the CD version came out in 2010, in a re-mastered form, which is the one I have here. Here the orchestral approach of the music is taken to a more extreme level. Fazio uses field recordings and improvised electronics, in order to play around with processed as well as unprocessed versions of it, adding guitar, piano and voices to create quite a rich sound here. Like in most of his work he stretches out his sounds quite a bit and let them develop in a natural way, following their own course, but there might also be the
possibility that there is a sudden crescendo and/or a sudden break; a bang on the can as it were and the pieces takes on a different course after that. With the addition of field recordings, not the most common feature in orchestral music, even of the sampled variety, he adds a fine different element to the music, something that gives it the quality of a radio drama maybe, certainly when the voices are talking, such as in 'A Walk Amongst The Raindrops'.

This is music that is beautiful, powerful, intimate and cinematographic; the end of a great trilogy of some of the finest ambient music; in whatever form Mike Fazio wishes to play this. He shows he has a few tricks up his sleeve. (FdW)