Two years ago, Andrew Wasylyk cemented his long-running friendship with us here in Monorail by creating a whole new companion album to Fugitive Light and Themes Of Consolation, Parallel Light. Available only through Monorail on CD with Fugitive Light, this sumptuous work in its own right is now available as a stand alone LP release. We’ll have signed copies. With ‘Parallel Light’, Andrew Wasylyk offers an alternative mix album to 2020’s spiritual-jazz and neo-classical masterclass in melody, ‘Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation’. This new LP, his third with Athens Of North Records, is as much a different perspective as a companion piece. The ten songs still circle landscapes for meaning, channelling half-heard melodies and misremembered memories; caught somewhere between settling down and setting out towards the shining levels of the estuary and beyond. Each magnifying the bold, expansive arrangements of FL&TOC with layers are lifted and peeled away. The soft-focus glow of gently pressed piano keys, the well and wash of strings and brass remain, but the deduction of instrumentation serves to highlight the ornate and offers comfort with this new found space. In the warmth reshaped, a romanticism illuminated. At the essence of these reframed compositions Wasylyk’s blue and gold, mellifluous refrains prevail. It’s a seamless, sublime flow from a restless artists and an album quietly reawakened.
