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You have to wonder what it is that motivates an artist
to create within the progressive rock genre. It certainly
wouldn’t be because of financial reward or finding the quick
and easy path to fame. And yet we are graced with individuals
who make that decision. Individuals like former Scythe guitar
player Thomas Thielen who now goes by the name of “T”. His
new release is entitled Voices and as a loose concept each
of the CD’s eleven tracks deals with the voices we hear in
our heads in different situations throughout our lifetime.
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It’s been four years since his first solo effort and
over that time T has matured both as an individual and an
artist. Voices is very much a one-man-show with T retaining
total control of his compositions, writing, performing and
singing everything. But the music created sounds very much
like a band performing. He is very adept at a wide range of
instruments and his skill shows. The compositions are mostly
in the six-minute range with the longest being just under
ten-minutes. ***
The music created on Voices is moody, dramatic, and full
of emotion. There is an over-riding sense of darkness that
pervades these pieces. Many of the compositions tend to start
soft and build in intensity. Along the way you encounter moments
of soft acoustic guitar or piano only to have the sound morph
into full lush orchestrated passages. The overall sense I
got while listening is that this isn’t a CD full of a lot
of soloing on any particular instrument. There is some of
that of course, but over all the music tends to present itself
as more of a rich panorama of sound. T tends to work at developing
musical-atmospheres to help convey the sense of the lyrics
and in that regard there are many moments where the music
is very dense and orchestrated. Running through the compositions
is also a sense of anxiety or angst. ***
As a reference the music and vocal style of Voices reminds
me a lot of Marillion’s Brave which was one of their best
recent efforts. And certainly if you enjoyed that you’ll enjoy
what T has created on Voices. This is a CD that takes a few
spins to warm up to but it really grows on you and like most
music of this nature the more times you listen the more you
come to appreciate both the lyrical and musical depth that’s
present. This is an admirable follow-up to Naïve and in this
case the T obviously stands for ‘talent.’ Let’s hope it doesn’t
take another four years for the next release. ***
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