Steven Wilson
Grace For Drowning

For Steven Wilson, the past decade has certainly been memorable: with the release of "Insurgentes," our English sprite finally found a creative outlet for all his inspirations and aspirations, concluding a quest for musical maturity that began with the Porcupine Tree and branched out over the years into more genres and directions, in the form of the most disparate projects. Few artists can boast such a 360-degree vision of music, acquired through remarkable knowledge in the field, and obviously through a passion for their work stronger than ever.

Now we are in 2011, and we have a brand new album in our hands.

In this second work under his name, our porcupine hones his ability to channel a great mass of different musical ideas and conceptions into a single piece.

The result is simply colossal.

"Grace For Drowning," divided into three different parts with evocative names ("Deform to Form a Star", "Like Dust I Have Cleared from my Eye", and "The Map", present only in the Deluxe edition of the CD), represents for Wilson a true encyclopedia of influences and styles; a cauldron of electronic sounds, expansive progressive rock and touching pop d'auteur, as well as dynamic and cerebral jazz compositions in perfect King Crimson style.

As always, the production is excellent, and the sound quality is extremely high: after all, when talking about the artist in question, there can be no doubt about it.

The performance of the large "cast" of musicians called to undertake the instrumentation (flutists, saxophonists, keyboardists...) is outstanding, among whom are such prominent names as Tony Levin on bass, the "guitar-hero" Steve Hackett, Dream Theater's keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and naturally the genius Robert Fripp.

Upon listening, everything, despite its richness of very different sounds, appears cohesive and tightly bound to an underlying concept that permeates the entire work: the duality of the human soul (a theme always dear to Steven), suspended between dark chaos and celestial atmospheres, inner disorder and peace of mind.

Each track has its own function within the work, from the long and intense "Raider II" (unfolding unsettlingly among flutes, claustrophobic electric guitar riffs, acoustic arpeggios, choirs, and so on) to the obsessive piano of "Remainder The Black Dog", passing through the terrifying tones of "Index", the bliss of "Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye", the expansive sweetness of "Deform to Form a Star", and so forth...

It is difficult to judge the work based on individual tracks, as a superficial listen will not suffice to understand Wilson's ambitious and varied project.

The English artist offers us a truly impressive work, probably one of the finest of 2011: indispensable for those in search of a true sonic journey with a thousand nuances, crafted with mastery and with profound love for music in all its forms.