Following our illuminating interview with Frederic L’epée, the eagerly awaited new Yang release has now arrived! Described as a “guitar-centric quartet” with “Frippian counterpoint-fuelled compositions” this album does not disappoint in any way. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is one of the most accomplished and visceral recordings I have heard in a long time! It is also an album that requires repeated listening to fully reveal its depths.
Described also as “a healing response for this New Dark Age” intended “to purge darkness from our souls”, guitarist extraordinaire Frederic L’epée of SHYLOCK, PHILHARMONIE, and now YANG, fame, reports that he has changed his lyrical style from impressionistic to “directly meaningful” to shift the depressing agenda of our current age and, instead, “embrace beauty and light”. “It is not a happy time,” says Frederic, “Everything is wrong, nothing is going properly but we have to rejoice in what we have.”
The playing and arranging is excellent throughout and Yang has retained the same line-up as “Designed for Disaster” (2022), aside from a change in the vocal department with the arrival of singer/ violinist Carla Kihlstedt of SLEEPY TIME GORILLA, a group Frederic came across serendipitously when reading a review of his own work. Lauren James (guitar), Nico Gomez (bass) and Volodia Brice (drums) are the other musicians. While lyrically there is a different emphasis, intricate guitar and a polyrhythmic approach still prevails, and the subtle approach of L’epée and his closely-knit Yang group is a novel way of getting important messages across.
‘Step Inside’ provides a rousing start as we are urged to “laugh at fear, laugh at lies”. ’La quatrième mort/la vie lumineuse’ is an addictively poetic piece of music about “embracing pain, embracing anger, I feel no fear”; ‘Entanglement’ is a very moving piece about us sharing the flow, the same river, the elements affecting us equally. The music makes you feel that you are part of something on a higher plane. On the 11:27 of ‘The Final Day’ (11:27) a breathy, balladic vocal and a bass ostinato create a darker mood; the subject matter is not easy as mass extinction (potentially) awaits: “over the land, fiery sand falls, everyone’s horizon burns”: you might think this is a pessimistic album, but actually it is not, it is, to my ears, positively life-enhancing.
(There is much more on this album and the thinking behind it in my interview with Frederic to be published exclusively in the next edition of ACID DRAGON).
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