Review | GNAC: The Echoes on Departure
Thoughts about the brand new LP by GNAC
“The Echoes On Departure” is the 7th LP released by Mark Tranmer under his legendary GNAC guise, established in the early '90s.
Not only does this new release not disappoint, but it proudly showcases one of the most important musicians of our time in top form.
But first, full disclosure about my loyal GNAC fandom.
One of the most life-changing experiences during my long journey as a hardcore music devotee happened in the late '90s, at Vinylmania, a beautifully curated independent record shop in downtown Athens, Greece, sadly now defunct.
It was there that I discovered the sublime music of Mark Tranmer, releasing his records under the guise of GNAC. For years I couldn't stop listening to “Friend Sleeping”, his first LP and a CD collection of previously released 7'' singles. Of course, I have been faithfully following his career since, buying every release, each one offering me great listening pleasure to this day.
I still remain in love with GNAC and the adjacent aural universe which includes Tranmer's various collaborations, like the Montgolfier Brothers (with the late Richard Quigley), Vetchinsky Settings (with James Hackett of The Orchids), as well as projects with the brilliant Italian pianist and composer Alessandra Celletti
In “The Echoes on Departure”, Tranmer continues to evolve as a master of aural filigrees, audio embroidery and sonic miniatures: the slightest twists of tone and the frailest shards of melody evolve within his compositions towards an ornate rocaille, their overall structure as complex and moody as a fugue yet also simultaneously fragile and playful, like a porcelain ornament, as if deep thought is entertained by capricious flights of fancy, the repartee between levity and gravity most witty, fit for an exquisite literary salon
This is a universe of deliquescent affectations, gentle gestures and elaborate references, quite a lot of them camp, most of them obscure and most importantly perhaps, unapologetically representing a deviant aesthetic
The music of GNAC is queer in the sense of non-conforming to contemporary dogmas about modernity, repudiating orthodoxies and toxic stereotypes, operating in a space where failed seriousness and staged mannerisms are fearlessly utilized until they achieve their full theatrical potential, like in an Alain Resnais film or a Richard Avedon photograph
It is also pensive, delicate, chamber music - never morose as indie shoe-gaze can be, neither numbingly synthetic like electronic ambient, nor cloyingly sweet in the easy listening sense – these are sounds whose discreet charms are as potent as they are nuanced, flirting with self-awareness and winking beguilingly
Furthermore, the work of Mark Tranmer, on an academic level, is a generous fountain of initiations, informing the audience about entirely forgotten schools of sonic aesthetics, as well as creating a permissive space where one can confess about their most secret longing: intense aural beauty for the sake of it
Glimmering in the treasure chest of references summoned by Tranmer in this richly eclectic record, the attentive listener is reminded of:
reconfigurations of incidental vignettes dreamt-up by Nino Rota, Francis Lai, Maurice Jarre and other great late-20th-century European soundtrack composers;
soft reverberations of acoustic tone-poems by Felt, the Durutti Column or even Virginia Astley;
elegant flourishes that recall the idiosyncratic style of mid-20th century European neo-romanticism a la Georges Auric;
swoon-inducing chord changes reminiscent of Chopin, Satie and Schuman;
and, as always with GNAC, the bijoux compositions float on a strong undercurrent of narrative and illustrative stylizations, a stream of musical associations which amounts to a glorious declaration of love for obscure soundtracks, forgotten library records and mellifluous elevator music.
A noble act of resistance, adorably erudite and defiantly disciplined, GNAC stands tall for all that is good and sacred in music, communicating a unique manifesto whose melodic seductiveness, fragile outlines and tender core are exactly what contemporary music needs today.
As the eleven tracks of “The Echoes of Departure” stroll along at their languorous tempo, my enchanted ear was led down a florid path of brazen sentimentality, the aural blooms of emotional intensity tempered by delicate melancholy, happy to be enveloped in the evocative atmosphere rushing forth from the lush yet finely measured arrangements
Another testament to his melodic genius, the new record by GNAC is an era-defining release by Mark Tranmer.
Written exclusively for the Psychonaut Elite by Panagiotis Chatzistefanou, Berlin, March 2023
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