“David Wright is a fabulous composer who knows how to give us sighs with orchestrations always well dosed”
1 Legend of the Tundra 8:24
2 Beijing 5:50
3 Rysheara 3:25
4 Cosmicon 4:48
5 Albania Part 1 7:53
6 Smiling Shadows Lie 3:41
7 Korçe 4:53
8 Room of Dolphins 3:03
9 Borders of Colour 1:48
10 Transformation 2:29
11 Benny's Theme 2:48
12 Albania Part 2 4:16
13 Love Remembered 5:01
14 Returning Tides 3:59
15 Dissimilar Views 17:20
(CD/DDL/Spotify 78:38) (VF)
(E-Rock, New Age, England School)
Here's an album I didn't know much from David Wright. In fact, I may have heard once or even two some years ago, before recently receiving its download link from the AD Music label. For the little story; DISSIMILAR VIEWS was created in the wake of the cassette Albania - The Korce Project, a musical initiative to raise funds for the impoverished children of Albania. Circumstances beyond David's control forced him to abandon the project. Instead, fans of the English musician were charmed by the release of DISSIMILAR VIEWS, which is actually a first compilation from David Wright. The album featured 15 unreleased tracks, including half a dozen from Albania - The Korçë Project, composed between January 1993 and November 1994. In order to respect the audio standards of the streaming platforms, DISSIMILAR VIEWS had its new mastering this summer.
Legend of the Tundra jumps to our ears with an Arabian philharmonic vision that will be found in several other titles of this album. If the sound is old, I think of Sinbad's old movies here, the rhythm is plowed by heavy percussions while the momentum is propelled by staccato-style violin layers. The music is cut by a disheveled passage that gives more depth to the intense Middle Eastern arrangements. At the time, I didn't like it. It's better today, but that's not what David Wright does best. No! There are titles like Beijing which is a very beautiful oriental melody with good Vangelis' arrangements (China). Pleasure assured here! The piano is very beautiful. We like this kind of music very listenable on a Sunday morning? Smiling Shadows Lie, which unites a lonely saxophone with violins from Eden, is in the field of good titles of the genre. Rysheara is a classic in David Wright's repertoire! It's a thrilling electronic ballad built in romance. Its pace is sustained, near the synth-pop, with a synth in mode harmony and good percussive effects that add a handful of riffs. Sailing between the England School style and the progressive New Age, David Wright throws good solos that moan like an electronic guitar. We are still in mode electronic ballad with Cosmicon that sparkles from one ear to the other with an alternating movement of rhythmic keys. Almost circular, or like the imperfect flight of a helicopter facing the winds, the rhythm is forged by arpeggios whose limpidity tinkles in layers of synth always seraphic. Albania Part 1 is preparing this long sequel to Albania - The Korçë Project with a good electronic rock, typical of the England School birth. Military beat-box percussions, spasmodic sequences and a Patrick O'Hearn bass line forge this very MIDI rhythm while the harmonies are in New Age mode with pan flute effects.
If we like the pan flute, she waltzes in the very tender and romantic Love Remembered. This very New Age title, which gives me images of Gone with the Wind, is another version of Always from the album Waiting For The Soundtrack. Korçe offers another idea of the electronic rock that constantly place David Wright's music straddling between easy synth-pop, disco orchestrations, the New Age, for the harmonious effects of violins, and the purely electronic rock of which the drive is pushed by a good sequencer and percussive effects. The piano and its carousel effect bring Room of Dolphins in a good structure without a uniform for a nice 3 minutes of audacious piano in its melodious vision. That's David Wright; never too complicated, nor really easy but always very beautiful! Ditto for Borders of Color and its solitary saxophone in wooshh of mists. More dramatic and more intense is Transformation! Benny's Theme? How beautiful it is! A good nocturnal melody lying on a hyper-sensitive piano that touched me by its immense tenderness. That's David Wright! It's impossible not to love this sensibility that lives on its skin. Albania Part 2 is a logical follow-up to Albania Part 1. Returning Tides is another well-known title in David's repertoire. It's in the style of the two Albania, but without the pastiches or sequins of the orchestrations. The title-track is a all alone in this festival short tracks very easy to tame. It's a purely electronic title that borders the audacities of a more abstract music. Except that bits of melodies, played by a delicate piano that is everywhere around the 17 minutes of Dissimilar Views, giving it a sweet dreamy cachet while guiding it through different genres that flirt between Robert Schroeder, for his hopping and cackling tempo, and Tangerine Dream, for Edgar's riffs and this circular structure of the Jive years. Very good!
I liked DISSIMILAR VIEWS better than when I was in search of the heavy and progressive Berlin School. And it's not because of the new mastering! David Wright is a fabulous composer who knows how to give us sighs with orchestrations always well dosed. And judiciously well placed. This good and melodious EM which sometimes flirts with the unexpected while remaining always very oneiric.
Sylvain Lupari (November 07th, 2019) ***½**
Available at AD Music