A Place for Dreamers By Francis V

 

A Place for Dreamers

By

Francis V

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

A new name for me, but a great place to start as I get to take a listen to and review a new body of electronic work entitled A Place For Dreamers by Francis V, a fourteen track mega work created by the Italian percussionist and composer, one that spans and crosses many genres, and self-described by the artist as a work that explores self-discovery, isolation, and boundless imagination.

The opening piece is rightly called Prelude and is a fine gentle introduction to our voyage of plenty ahead, this is quickly followed by Dreamers, and this features the classy vocals of Kelly Rose Moncado, for a wonderfully fluid starting song of quality, one with a slightly funky beat.

The next offering had a slightly mysterious feel to it and called Fish Out of Water, this smooth offering had a really chilled vibe to its creation and one could see it being a hit within that genre, with its textured percussion and delicate synth work contained within.

A powerful and moving track can be found next and entitled Beauty and Resistance; the minor nature of this offering is truly appealing and builds beautifully throughout the arrangement, reminding me slightly of the work of the UK’s Andy Pickford at times.

We now edge ever further to the centre of this project and as we do so we arrive at a piece called Devotion. One has to applaud the artist as each and every composition thus far has a unique quality that is so very pleasing to feel. Here one can perhaps detect a slight world music vibe to the composition, one mixed with a classic contemporary instrumental feel, and the inclusion of the spoken word sample by Steve Jobs and Secrets of Life was clever indeed.

The more emotional elements are also here in the opening of the piece entitled Every Moment With You, one that quickly expands its narrative into a more dance like prose, which perpetuates the offering and added to by "Qwinn" Brittany McQuinn, which in turn flows into a delicious middle placed arrangement called Finding Yourself in a Better Place, this would be one of my personal favourites from the album, reminding me of the days when the chill out genre gave us such musical gifts like the Buddha bar collections.

The Drowned World ushers forth our journey into the latter half of the album, and in doing so heralds one of the finest pieces off the release with its neo-classical over tones and exciting electronic and percussive persuading energies; this could well be a superb track for a future documentary, it has that cinematic appeal to its construction.

As we drift into the reverie that is Beyond the Horizon we come back in touch with the sumptuous vocals of Kelly Rose Moncado, a song that takes us over the impending horizon and onward to even more curious musical landscapes, such as the following offering entitled Walking Away, one that at its early inception reminded me of my track Wisteria House, but soon changed direction into a more anthem like, and darker composition.

Lost in Space, continues the deeper theme, one that strikes a delicious moody refrain and teases us with its smoothness, but one that also contains the haunting vocals of Myleene Gaye to add an extra layer of craft and cleverness into the proceedings.

Another change of course can be found in the more keyboard orientated composition Disconnected, a track that combines so many musical influences from smooth jazz to electronica and trance, that the entire composition becomes incredibly addictive.

Our penultimate piece is called Tarkovsky, a rhythmic pastiche of tone and timbre, and the final concluding part to this far reaching and vast album is entitled Endless, and is by far the longest track off the album by some length at just shy of eight minutes. However the piece itself is eerily ambient, deftly ethereal, and with ease one of the most inventive tracks I think I have heard to conclude an album for many a year, this is certainly one to take in many times over.

A Place for Dreamers by Francis V is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most fascinating albums I have listened to in months; this is a release that you will be glued to; just to perhaps listen to where exactly it is going to go next. This extremely artistic new compilation of quality tracks should be sort out by fans of multiple genres, and as such it may well have a few happy months of musical glory of the charts.