Once upon a decade, guitarist Carl Baldassarre, keyboardist Sam Giunta, and drummer Paul Mihacevich called themselves Witsend, and released one album back in 1993 called Cosmos and Chaos. After years of inactivity, the three reunited, and under the moniker of Syzygy, released last year's acclaimed CD, The Allegory Of Light. In its wake, the midwestern American trio felt it would be proper to resurrect an old ghost that was recorded under a handle swiped by another, less worthy bunch in the interim years. This situation parallels another American symph-prog trio act, North Star, who reunited just several years ago after the better part of a decade in limbo. While the music of these two bands isn't worlds apart, the members of Ohio-based Witsend/Syzygy lean toward a slightly broader sound, while not clutching their influences so tightly.
Aside from a single full-fledged song, this is really an instrumental album. "Voyager" is a very ELP[owell] flavored overture, with a great melodic organ lead by Giunta, and lots of synth chord stacks and one wailer of a guitar solo. "Circadian Rhythm" draws on the ghosts of Camel and pre-A Tull, and there's a whimsical air about it, regardless of how formulaic it might be—this is one infectious song. The elfin pitch of Baldassarre's voice suggests a "de-quirked" Ian Anderson! Back to rockier shores: the wildly undulating "Strange Loop II" mixes ELP-tinged bombast with '80s Rush and Kansas (remember "Musicatto"?). "Mount Ethereal" is far less chaotic and only sparsely melodic, but still a very impressive movement built on suspended chords, fragmented phrases, and orchestral synths. Drummer Mihacevich revs his gears into Neil Peart Overdrive, contrasting Baldassarre's and Giunta's less-is-more schematique. The track is made complete with another burner of a '70s-styled guitar solo.
A flipside to Cosmos and Chaos exists; each bar of refined melodic brawn can be matched to one of introspective beauty. It turns out that Sam Giunta and Carl Baldassarre have a few solo tracks: Baldassarre indulges in several classical guitar "Etudes," and Giunta counters with the solopiano of "Poetry In B Minor." More textured scenarios materialize in Giunta's "The Tone Row" and one of the album's best pieces, Baldassarre's "Tautology." The latter brings together multitracked acoustic & electric guitar & bass parts, interwoven into a single tapestry abundant with multiple ideas that could be further expounded on in a heartbeat. Along with the album opener and "Mount Ethereal," "Tautology" is a real winner. A strange choice of a title, however, considering it means "redundancy" as well as "repetition." So after one final trio workout called "Closure," I also find it odd that Witsend thought it would be nifty to exit with "Chaos"—basically a two minute-long coda to the previous forty-five minutes, a sound collage of snippets of themes that appeared over the course of the album. While it's tacky, it doesn't lessen its appeal, any. Melodic prog-lodytes will love this.
Tracklist:
1. Voyager 5:26
2. Circadian Rhythm 3:39
3. Tautology 3:56
4. Etude No. 1 2:25
5. Strange Loop II 6:24
6. Cosmos 1:20
7. Poetry In B Minor 1:17
8. Mount Ethereal 7:39
9. Etude No. 2 4:12
10. The Tone Row 2:19
11. Closure 7:13
12. Chaos 1:49
Total Time: 47:41
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