Review | Andrew Wasylyk - "Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation" + "Parallel Light"
An enchanting experience for any discerning music lover
Released under the pseudonym Andrew Wasylyk, the alias of Scottish writer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Mitchel, “Parallel Light” (2023) is not so much a set of remixes but an alternate take on “Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation” (2020), both released by the long-revered Athens Of The North indie label (based in Edinburgh, UK). They complete a trilogy about the environment of Eastern Scotland, beginning in 2017 with “Themes For Buildings And Spaces”
Both records are inseparable companion pieces, almost an interrupted double LP, bookending an enchanting experience for any discerning music lover
Occupying a crepuscular zone of intersecting instrumental genres, whose overlapping areas are as laid back as they are sophisticated, the mood is never far from any recognizably soulful frequency, achieving gorgeous textures that are as discreetly representational of their references as they are soothing in their considered juxtaposition.
That is, each track qualifies as some sort of fusion classic – containing a kaleidoscope of references, nods, acknowledgments, and erudition.
The sonic surprises are genuine and many: each twist and turn of these dreamy orchestral vignettes is rewarding in its own, unpredictable yet inspired, in their individually refined, impeccably delicate manner.
Either it's a chord change emotionally charged enough to suggest a soundtrack for some wistful '60s art film; or a gently strummed accompaniment flowing along to gorgeous flute passages, soaring above the folksy vistas - or it's even barely heard choral vocalizing caressed by voluptuous string flourishes: the sonic palette is as exotic as it is varied, yet it never strays from a strict, taut, austere lexicon.
Following the same ethos of supra-aesthetic integrity, even the titles announce themselves in a confidently literary manner – descriptive enough to be honest, evasive enough to be evocative: “Last Sunbeams of Childhood” “Fugitive Light Restless Water” “Everywhere Something Sublime” “Awoke in the Early Days of a Better World” “The Violet Hour”
Neo Romantic in the sense of mid-20th century affectations mimicking 19th-century mannerisms (think Lord Berners and the salon of Edith Sitwell, including mad poet/architect Edward James, the gloomy pensiveness of Boris Kochno and Pavel Tchelitchev and the stagy classicism of the Berman Brothers, Eugene and Leonid), Andrew Wasylyk similarly paints ravishing twilight vistas of beautiful ruins, picturing the oddly beautiful remnants of sonic temples long-abandoned: library music, incidental tracks for documentary intros, montages and end titles, new age meditation tapes, obscure soundtracks, private label releases, parochial obscurities, and esoteric psychedelia – these underground, marginalized, forgotten areas of music are all re-animated, as ghosts haunting our capacity for pinpointing their origins and thus their meaning.
Overall, this record is an aesthetic exercise that never fails to be as inventive as it is emotionally moving.
Balancing majestically on the sentimental tightrope uniting the chasm yawning between the poles of charismatic pretention and witty self-consciousness, Andrew Wasylyk is a name to watch, a graceful, risky, spectacular musician.
Written by Panagiotis Chatzistefanou in Berlin, January, 2024