From Belgium Asael Iannelli gets in touch with me regarding his symphonic prog concept album, Fragments of Light.
The first thing to say is that if you use the purchase link at the foot of this review, you will discover a beautifully packaged and produced product. All this album was written, recorded, and produced independently, and you must admire the love and care which has gone into this.
Of course, though, in these straitened times, does that equate to parting with cash to get it? Well, let us discuss.
First, there is a promo video, which is embedded here, but Aesel has made the entire album available on YouTube, and this is embedded at the foot of the review for you to enjoy. The artist explains the concept as the fact that humans look at the world through our own lens, veering between positivity and negativity, and sometimes the mind turns towards the dark before searching for the light, and the journey portrayed here is of a mind immersed in this duality. Pure prog indeed!
There are eleven parts to the album, with a mix of instrumental parts and vocal-led. Parts 4, 8, and 10 had lyrics co-written by Samuel Parotte.
From the opening bars of ShadOverture, the orchestration is rich, warming, and you are immediately transported into the symphonic progressive world, a difficult one, incidentally, to inhabit, given the luminaries beloved by aficionados. It allays any such concerns – quite beautiful, a perfect orchestral overture serving as an introduction to this musician’s carefully crafted world, but as it segues into its second movement, the rock music enters our thoughts, and it is a pastoral landscape for sure, with a noticeably bright extended guitar solo, the influences of the likes of The Moodies and Camel there.
The vocals are introduced in the third movement, which is also the title track, and Iannelli has a nice expressive voice, and with the orchestration as a backdrop, it all sounds lush, a rich bass melody, and more impressive fretwork – he can play and displays impressive chops.
As with any serious symphonic musician, an ability to provide rich piano and organ is a prerequisite, and the fourth movement gives us this, and it does a good job of enlarging on the negative thoughts, turning to the mundanity of daily life, and the frenetic organ solo is more than good enough to put it across. The album never gets angry, as such, but utilises its innate warmth to put its point across more than adequately.
The acoustic guitar solo in part five is lovely and provides further telling evidence that we are dealing with a quality musician here. My only gripe is that this beautiful piece, with its gentle soundscapes is too short, but it does move into Inner Light, the longest element of the suite at 8 ½ minutes. I do like Elizabeth Rosic’s vocals on this alongside Iannelli, and the chorus where they sing together has a strong accessibility, building nicely as it progresses, and the introduction of de Vits duduk brings a very rich texture, the piano and drums gently riffing alongside him before another guitar burst. This track is a very good example of the album as a whole, in that it has been meticulously crafted and put together, the playing never anything less than top notch, and the synths at the close of it take a leaf from the Wakeman playbook. There is an interesting crossover to the following instrumental, which is pure orchestral music with timpani’s crossing our consciousness.
The eighth part, Shared Lives, is a choral effort, with a few vocalists joining Iannelli, perhaps too many, actually, and might have been more effective had it been applied to one of the more orchestral movements. As it is, there is too much going on with this one, although I do again really appreciate the acoustic guitar work he includes in this alongside a powerful piano solo which takes us into the ninth movement and a deeply moving guitar solo against the backdrop of the orchestration, the imprint of Latimer on this palpable, and it closes with good interplay between synths, orchestration, and guitar. The tenth movement, And Now, has a darker hue to start, and the vocal interplay between Iannelli and Angela Lo Presti is strong, the track a lament on the need for humankind to choose light over darkness, the inner war spoken with her voice rising above it before we are treated to a soaring guitar solo, with some pleasing complexity within.
It all closes with FinaLight, announcing itself with an orchestral flourish before allowing us all to come down and contemplate where we are.
Fragments of Light and Aesel Iannelli are perhaps the ideal representation of why this website was set up. Yes, we love to review and talk to Marillion, Pallas, Nolan, Piazzai, and the rest, but ultimately, I like to give a voice to those musicians without the weight of a label or PR behind them, curating works which have so much graft, love, and thought behind them.
This is a very good album which richly deserves your time in exploring. It reminds me of the works released by David Minasian, deservedly respected in the symphonic prog world, so that is a good starting point for your consideration, David, of course, being very close to Justin Hayward & Andy Latimer.
Personnel:
Vocals & choirs:
Asael Iannelli (tracks 3, 4, 6, 8 & 10)
Angela Lo Presti (tracks 8 & 10)
Elizabeth Rosic (tracks 6 & 8)
Hugo Santos (track 8)
Megan Di Tomasso (track 8)
Nora De Simone (track 8)
Ruth Tobi (track 8)
Duduk (track 6):
Kevin De Vits
Electric & acoustic guitars:
Asael Iannelli
Bass guitar (select parts):
Asael Iannelli
Keyboards:
Asael Iannelli