Detailed Reviews [Patrick Forgas - 2002 - "Synchronicity"]

Prologue. I haven't heard the music of Patrick Forgas until now.

The Album. The contents of this album show that Patrick Forgas is the representative of Ambient Section of Solo Pilots where there also are Vangelis, Klaus Schultz, etc. However, the music that is presented on the "Synchronicity" album isn't spacey. On the whole, this music can be called Symphonic Ambient. To be precise, three compositions on the album, namely Animus, La Persona, and L'Ombre (tracks 1, 3, & 6), contain the arrangements that, overall, are typical for a traditional Ambient. While the music that is featured on all four of the other tracks on the album represents a blend of Ambient and a light Classical Music. It's because all the passages of electric and acoustic pianos that are featured on Anima, L'Inconscient Collectif, and Le Soir (2, 5, & 7) develop constantly. They're also changeable in tempo, and there aren't repeats in them. While the parts of all the other keyboards play for the most part only a supporting role. Le Soir, which is undoubtedly the best composition on the album, contains very effective interplay between the piano passages and solos of bass and vibraphone (both of which are 'synthetic', of course). The fourth interesting piece is Les Nombres (4). The possibilities of modern synthesizers were used here really broadly, so this piece is very rich in sound and interplay between various virtual (PC talk) instruments as well. By the way, the solos and passages of 'synthetic' saxophone, oboe, harp, violin, and bass, that form the arrangements of this piece, sound rather naturally. The passages of electric piano are featured on all the tracks of this album. On those three ambient pieces, they, however, aren't that diverse. Animus (1) is the only composition on the album that contain the parts of the programmed drums, all of which, though, sound powerful and effective. Both the remaining ambient pieces were played slowly from the first to the last note. Apart from the other virtual instruments, La Persona (3) features an "acoustic guitar", and L'Ombre is rich in solos of "vibraphone".

Summary. Actually, I'm not into this sort of music. However, having heard a lot of albums of ambient music (etc), I can compare them. Patrick Forgas's "Synchronicity" is one of the most interesting and coherent 'ambient' albums that I've heard. It's difficult for me to recommend it to any sort of the 'classic' Prog-lovers, though there are progressive ingredients on this album. One way or another, we know that "His Majesty" mainstream rejects Ambient (etc), as well as a true Progressive. So I think I should support the best examples of the simplest forms of Progressive Music as well.

VM. May 28, 2002