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Symphony Infinitum
By
Phillip Kanakis
Written by
Steve Sheppard
The soft pastiche of a piano based album with a plethora of
added instrumentation came my way today in the guise of Symphony Infinitum by Phillip
Kanakis. This wondrous moment of sonic exploration filled the start of my
day with hope and cheer, as we wend our way through a personal 30 year journey
for the artist, and a work that contains the mastery of The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir as well.
The album itself is a 10 track opus of grandeur, a powerful
and moving collection of touching works, like the opening offering entitled Symphony Infinitum Intro. The steady
onward procession of this piece is most appealing; it establishes the scale and
atmosphere: something expansive, timeless and almost cosmic.
Short form narratives are here as well including the
following piece called Epic Journey.
This informative musical tale explains the weave of the theme as we possibly
begin leaving the familiar, encountering challenges, and pursuing something
larger, elements of Philip Glass can
be found within the weave of this manifestation. Then onto the thoughtful
musical prose of Reflection, the
accompanying percussion and drums were particularly effective here, in a track
that when meshed with the strings, was a real team effort, and a classy
cinematic opus in structure.
Sweet Moments is a soft and tender tonal delight
and certainly the most intimate offering thus far. There is a focused shift
toward simple experiences that make life meaningful and simple; this is
followed though by the powerful and rock styled ethic of Seven Rings, the full flowing choir here was truly inspiring to
listen to, and brought chills to the arms and neck, the electric guitar also in
its War of the Worlds Style was
enticing; this would turn out to be one of my personal favourites from the
entire release.
The midway juncture is reached, and with a classical
tradition, drawing on Beethoven's
Moonlight Sonata. But rather than simply presenting Beethoven's work, the
title "Essence of Moonlight"
suggests extracting its emotional core, and in doing so, placing it inside
Kanakis's broader cinematic-orchestral universe.
108 Overture is a wonderfully uplifting
composition that I personally found quite chilled, and containing an almost
drifting narrative. Until I researched I must admit to not knowing this, which
the number 108 carries significant symbolic importance’s in several Eastern
spiritual traditions. Here the artist manifests something deeply personal, but
the tone of the aforementioned creation is anthem like in its energies.
When we reach the more cinematic opus of Infinity we are gifted a real treat, a flowing classical
arrangement with piano that reminds me of the works of Michael Hoppe. After the journey, reflection and spiritual
symbolism, the music arrives at something much larger than the individual, this
is a grand sweeping gesture of a creation that is much appreciated.
The penultimate offering is entitled For What Words Cannot Say, to me Kanakis is in his element on this
offering, a constant piano progression and narration can be found here that is
utterly incredibly and thoroughly enjoyable, there is a depth here that is also
palpable, as if it is bringing the enormous cosmic ideas back to something
deeply human, in its musical cycle.
The concluding arrangement is Hymn to the World, if ever you wanted to go out with something
amazingly powerful this would be the very track I would point to, its majesty
and grace would finish any movie perfectly.
Symphony Infinitum by Phillip Kanakis is a classy collection of creative choices and compositions, perhaps in summing up it would be wise to think of this album as a whole entity, rather than individual tracks, and that the experience could very well be a cinematic meditation on existence. Regardless this is a stunning release and, and it should do incredibly well in the charts for Symphony Infinitum by Phillip Kanakis.
