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As is customary with Pink Floyd and the various former members of the historic English group, there is always a search for a combination, a synergy, between the music proposed and the historical period experienced, almost as if it is not already certain that their sound visions and their grand musical approach are enough to consecrate them in history.
This time David Gilmour, for the conclusion of the tour supporting his solo album 'On an Island', chose Gdańsk. The historic Polish port on the Baltic lends itself as an incredible setting, almost like something out of an action movie, with disused steel sheds and huge shipyard cranes in the background. The reason for the location is quickly explained in a diary/documentary film about the desire to capture this place in history, as it seems it will soon be repurposed for other industrial or civil uses. This is the place where the union movement led by Lech Wałęsa was born, which, as David himself emphasizes, was one of the movements that promoted the wind of change not only in Poland but throughout the Soviet bloc. The printed product thus becomes an epoch-making document.
There are two versions available: one with two audio CDs and one with two audio CDs and two DVDs. Needless to say, listening to just the audio is limiting, as much as it might be limiting to listen to David Gilmour and Pink Floyd, of course!
In front of an oceanic, enthusiastic crowd, at times attentive and silent, at times emotionally involved, accommodating, and noisy, the historical guitarist strings together one by one, like precious pearls on a multicolored thread, all the tracks of his most recent solo album, further enhanced by the contrasting backdrop of the port area and the six huge screens placed on the front of this stage, appearing like a temple raised to the gods of music.
But above all, the proposed tracks are enriched by the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, which places them in a new and unexpected light, probably the most fitting for songs that are nothing less than a rock opera.
This orchestral presence proves to be even more essential in the tracks taken from the Pink Floyd repertoire, especially in 'High Hopes', which thus surpasses the 'Live Pulse' version thanks to the strings that render the fusion between the orchestral themes and Gilmour's flair an exquisite amalgam. 'Echoes', performed in a complete and hypnotic version, becomes, along with the concluding and inevitable 'Comfortably Numb', an 'in memoriam' vow, where Gilmour's guitar confronts and at times merges in dialogue with Richard Wright's keyboards, becoming the focal point of the entire live performance. The long-time admirers will not be able to hold back the melancholy and at times the emotion of seeing and hearing Richard sing the first and fourth verses of this last track, one of those songs that is undoubtedly among the top ten most beautiful that Contemporary Music has offered us.
A work aimed at striking with both sound and images, different senses, becoming a must for all fans but also for those, curious, looking for the first time into one of the most influential and beloved guitarists in history. Masterpiece!
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