Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows, the latest album from Danny Peck, sees Peck moving past the familiar similarity of his previous music to totally reinventing his sound.
Peck says, “I moved on from tracker-driven music making software. For me, this was the key. Tracker sequencers, I realized, forced me into a rigid grid, stifling my creativity, and forcing me down the same path with each song again and again. Everything I made, to me, largely sounded and felt the same. I needed a change.”
Of the 10 tracks on Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows, entry points include “To Rise and Fall,” with its ebbing and rising layers of sweeping orchestral textures, ranging from soft and glowing to soaring on majestic surfaces.
Beginning with delicate classical tones, “The Gate” undulates on swelling waves of sound that build and take on depth and dimension. Heavy, rumbling percussive accents support a gleaming, almost chiming, topline that shimmers and swells to grand heights of flowing, swirling overlays.
“Controlled Flight” rolls out a light, throbbing, mechanized rhythm that slowly gathers muscle, while harmonic glazes assume gravitas and echoing resonance, forging a spiraling vortex of splendid colors and surging textures.
“Time Is Not Real,” relevantly the longest track on the album, features a gentle piano that provides a mellow matrix for a beautiful female voice. As the melody begins to hum with passion, the voice takes on dreamy, psychedelic layers, pulsing with expansive dynamics.
A personal favorite, “Dawn” reveals a classical intro, at once tender and elegant. Hints of melancholy flow through harmonics, giving emphasis to the affecting poignancy of the composition, which is oh-so gorgeous and sensitive.
Following a chiming, luscious intro, “The Edge of Reason” shifts to wavering textures and then elevates to grandiose stature, where it twirls, coils, and weaves into kaleidoscopic fractals humming with coruscating hues.
The title track ties the album off and is highlighted by an angelic choir of translucent voices that imbue the tune with the divine feeling of the Trisagion.
With Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows, Danny Peck merges electronica and classical elements into a brilliantly affecting album.
