There is nothing more transportive than a beautiful instrumental album. Tristan Gianola can compose through phantom threads, with strings that express-laugh, cry and emote. Luckily for us, it is not always a one off experience he leaves us with. There are albums of him taking us through experiences you look back on fondly. Instrumental bliss, curated to the second. In elevated spirits we present, Hymn.
In many ways, this is a triumph. There is so much positive light and energy coming from this album, my words might not do justice. Just the tailored ambience that he makes with O Mio Babbino Caro-is a lullaby for a psychedelic dream. Not induced by foreign elements, but that created with the deepest layer of your subconscious. When the melodies do present themselves, they have an Eric Johnson degree of maturity to it.
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It is in this same grain that you experience this whole song, divided in contrast by Over the Rainbow. To present that joy, Tristan Gianola focuses on more mellow notes, with diatonic and tri-tonic expressions. This is where he knows how to stretch his musical knowledge for something more vibrant. It is the colour that you want to see succeed the end of the rainbow as well. I like when major scale elements mix with the minor and suspended notes come out of nowhere. It is in this dissidence that Tristan is making the hymn that sways us all.
The title song Hymn comes in next. It is a refreshing, almost religious experience. In this case, just the guitar speaks-erudite and experimental in its approach. The lack of percussion shines a warm but bright spotlight on this stringed speech. You become hyperfixated, for we have overstimulated ourselves, and a single narrator is able to grab our attention.
The groovy Jump Ship comes next. It knows how to bring that sea shanty salt to the song, while still not making it descriptive like a Herman Melville novel. You hear stringed elements now, adding a whole degree of operatic detail and obsession. This was a great change from the nature of songs, also showing the kind of dynamic range that Tristan Gianola can fabricate out of thin air. Across the Stars has that jazz capsule as the centre, while still having an avant-garde theory that shrouds the music.
You get that feeling of experiencing an epic yet knowing each chapter distinctively. Tristan is not just trying things out with tones, he knows he can tell a better story when its devoid of words. Some might be dramatic movie scores, some songs that churn dreams and ilicit nightmares. No matter what, he remains true to his compositions.
When I head to Messiaen’s Birds and closer towards the end of the album, you do hear peeps of the OG Tristan Gianola. However, I do prefer what he’s doing with the firm, textural choices and representing music as something that can never be contained. This is a hymn that is going to keep on ringing for its marvellous vision:
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Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
