Standing Near Infinity By Michael Whalen

 

Standing Near Infinity

By

Michael Whalen

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

The prolific Michael Whalen is back with another new album, but this time it is in his guise as a fine electronic musician; you will doubtless remember the outstanding Imaginary Trains album released back in 2022 our last voyage into the world of EM for the artist album wise, and this new release is a reminder to all that within the heart of this superb artist beats the emotional vibrations of a synth and keyboard wizard, on his latest release Standing Near Infinity.

This 10 track album starts off in the same way as you might expect a 1980’s James Brown song might begin in its very early inception, the funk is strong in this one, which soon morphs into a fast, fluent and upbeat composition called In The Open Air. Here is a TV theme waiting to happen, but what a breath taking start!

Whalen’s expertise in music is off the scale, which is of course is what you would expect from a two-time Emmy Award winner whose career spans more than four decades. The following narrative entitled Love, Unspoken is a prime example of his prowess as an electronic music artist, the pastiche of tones notes and pads in this dramatic, and it has to be said quite moving opus is sublime.

However my personal favourite from the album would be the following composition called Out Of Body, this crossing genres offering ticked all the boxes, mixing startlingly good keyboard work with a rhythmic percussive element, perhaps even structured as a contemplative ambient journey of sorts, this incredibly brilliant composition was an utter delight, from EM to chill out and beyond, and reminded me in style of the British electronic music artist Geigertek and his track Leaving The Garden. One also has to applaud Michael for creating a sublime piece of music that is near on eight minutes long in these days of micro arrangements of mere seconds, this is so gratefully received.

As One is our next port of tonal delight; this is denser harmonically, with richer synth layers and stronger melodic anchors, the overall feel builds into an almost progressive rock narrative, but pulls back into a rhythmic tapestry of repeating electronic motifs, and clever keyboard melodies.

So to my favourite part of the album, the does what it says on the can segment, as Whalen brings us to the doorway marked Standing Near Infinity the title track. The glorious keyboard chords in this are literally scene setting and deep, long reverberant soundscapes can be heard as the piece builds dramatically but not overwhelmingly at all, its onwards steady progression would mark this as another one of my personal favourites from the release.

The curiously entitled The Sky Opens Its Eyes starts at a rapid pace, guitar sounds pick up the tempo and the keyboards and vocalisations even further, literally like the sun is rising on a new glorious day. This arrangement and its layers could almost be an anthem for better days ahead. Whilst on tracks like Soft Geometry we have a horse of a different musical colour, creating a hypnotic opening foray and building into something quite profound and moving during its middle phase, and with ease establishes a feeling of spaciousness and wonder, with elements of a Vangelis Blade Runner mood in its textures.

The Space Between Hours is a tapestry of insights and timeless motifs that highlights how sensitive Whalen is to a really good creative style, the almost talking synth is so mournful yet inspiring, and the percussive build and progression reminds me of the works of UK Electronic musician Andy Pickford.

As we drift into the loving arms of our penultimate offering we are gifted a track from the artist entitled The Inner Flame, the opening harmonies here building in a more new age style of media, the base and foundation of the track is soon found, and a soft onward progression on keyboards is brought to our attention in an almost Eno/Harold Budd moment of sublime magic, after that the heights this amazing piece takes us is to a cinematic level in a sublime Coda.

The concluding tale told is called Driftwood, Whalen’s final pieces are musically something to behold, and this track won’t let you down this time either. There is also a quite clever shift from the heavier inception, to a much more modern and rhythmic onward melody, once more mixing the electronic fluency and the floating keyboard narratives together beautifully, for a splendid final chapter of the album.

Standing Near Infinity by Michael Whalen is the third part of a musical voyage that started from Sacred Spaces, to Imaginary Trains and to here, on the edge of infinity. This is a stunningly well produced and performed release, but one that also needs to note the entire album is incredibly open and easy to listen to for any fan of truly good, expressive and melodious electronic music, so how dare I say anything else than this has to be another number one chart hit on the horizon for Standing Near Infinity by Michael Whalen.