Fazio ý — Élégie

Experimental, often ambient textural guitarist Mike Fazio has been active since the 80's, and recently grabbed my attention with a string of thoughtful, emotional and out of the box recordings under various aliases including orchestramaxfieldparrish, ÆRA and A Guide for Reason.  His music is filled with glassy melodious tones of ambiguous origin: if they were truly all sourced from guitar, that is a feat indeed.

"Élégie", containing three lengthy free rhythm soundscapes, proved quickly to be a worthy installment in Mike Fazio's catalogue, containing generous portions of the contemplative melancholy and expansive soundspace I love him for.

The first piece shows Fazio's love of the sound of the human voice, and also the crackling ambiance that comes with sampling vintage film.  I suspect Fazio and I may share a favorite in Coil's "The Angelic Conversation".  This track has a similar use of Shakespearian snippets over a serene, hushed backdrop.  The repetition of lines such as "Come to me in my dreams, and by day I shall be well again" and "Then part my hair and kiss my brow, and say 'My love, why suffrest thou?'" plunge my mind into intense introspection on the nature of romance, emotional dependency, sleep, and dreaming.  Similar bits of dialogue were scattered all over the much darker "Interiors" album, which is comparable to this in many ways, but far less inviting, as its samples discussed decay and death.

The guitar sounds in the background are vaporous and fleeting, similar in watery tone to the playing of Robin Guthrie, but somehow more distant, and missing Guthrie's chordal grounding.  Fazio whimsically makes whatever sound he feels at the moment, in a sonic sketch of the mind pleasantly wandering.  The sound remains consonant and unintrusive, a glistening and transparent current.

The voices are mostly absent in the album's second half, leaving us to focus on the shimmering processed whalesong of Fazio's guitar.  The sound meanders from place to place in thoughtless daydream, not as emotionally weighty or engaging, perhaps, as in the beginning, but much easier listening as a result.  The sparkling treble-dominant textures nearly reach the pure 'Mount Olympus' feeling of Iasos' music.  A couple tiny fragments of opera singing appear here and there, dissolving again into the blissful sea after a second or two; a wonderful effect.

Conclusively, "Élégie" is a wonderful example of why one should investigate Mike Fazio; what better place to start than here?  It is ambient music with enough odd unexpected elements floating in its current to remain consistently surprising and intriguing, while lulling one into a deep trance.  It has the dreamlike, nocturnal luminescence of my favorite Coil albums.  Highly recommended.