Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Valley Of Dreams

Artist: Fernando Apodaca and Todd Hannigan
Label:  Brotheryn Records
Release Date: March 19, 2012
Duration:  13 tracks, 26:37



Fernando Apodaca and Todd Hannigan, at first glace, seem an unlikely pairing to produce a series of instrumentals worthy of the soundtrack title. Apodaca is a film director / artist / composer while Hannigan is a contemporary folk, surf musician / composer / producer. Through similar interests and contacts they’ve collaborated on the ‘Melali – The Drifter Sessions’ soundtrack and most recently on Todd Hannigan’s ‘Further Than The Bow’ album. With Valley Of Dreams, they bring us on a journey of emotions.

The journey begins with “Origin”, an eclectic collection of sounds like samplings of life’s experiences. “Love” (Instrumental) combines strings and acoustic guitar to portray and define the intricacies of love while “Silver Strand” gives a dream-like feeling of carelessly floating.

The critical mass of this collection is a combination of these initial offerings with the addition of instrumental versions of two of Hannigan’s previously released songs in “Burn” and “Further Than the Bow”. Others seem to disconnect with the common theme; some are too short to invoke a great emotion. Of the latter, “Tesla” provides an interesting listen as the composition is a musical remembrance of Tesla’s pursuit to control the flow of electricity through the airwaves.

Generally, the string of thought and emotion seems occasionally broken while walking through the overall collection. However, emotion is certainly present and on occasion dramatically so. The marriage of strings and acoustic guitar provide much of this emotion while additional percussion may have brought this ‘soundtrack’ to a greater height.



Scott S Mertens

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