THE MAGICIAN KING

Fervent Send is one of those bands that has more than one incarnation which utilizes various core musicians as needed for the style of music that is required for each individual album. It is also a world-wide band, a collective of musicians spread throughout the world that, even though they live miles apart, can use technology to work together to create some memorable albums. The band is considered Eclectic Prog because of their ability to transcend various styles to create the sound they want and for their use of experimentalism across their albums.

In September of 2019, they released their 6th release in just 2019 alone, 4 of which are considered full-length albums. This album is entitled "The Magician King" and contains 4 tracks with a total run-time of over 34 minutes, so it lies on the border of being an EP and an LP. The album is available for download on Bandcamp. The musicians vary through the tracks, but Jon Du Bose (guitars, bass) and Jeff Eacho (flute, violin, mellotron, etc.) are the two constant forces through this album.

"Shaman" (6:36) starts the album and features Magnvs Mendez (drums), and Lobsang Kedrub (percussion and etc.). A minimal thump of percussion is the only thing anchoring this miasma of swirling and dissonant sound of droning and flowing instruments that create an extremely dissonant wall of sound. Before the 2 minute mark, however, the music instantly settles into a more structured sound (of sorts) when the drums demand a specific beat. The instruments stay mostly free form, but with less dissonance and more structure, though that structure flies out the window quite often. You can hear all of the layers as the sound is not really thick, but it does have a few layers that your brain can latch onto; swirling flutes, thumping bass, scratchy and tortured guitar and a somewhat standard drumming pattern anchoring it all. Though it is mostly a loose sound, it isn't necessarily meandering as each instrument sounds like it has purpose, and it all creates an experimental and somewhat psychedelic aura by the time it all finishes.

"Magician King" (10:44) also uses Lobsang Kedrub (percussion) and also brings in more guitars from Sebastien Siozade. This track is a bit heavier at first with squalling guitars and a flamboyant violin playing above it all. This soon calms down as strings take the most control, but allowing the thumping bass to set the mood. Layers of flute and violin start to wander around, but retain a mostly dark tone with the guitars complaining along, chiming and wailing. There is a lot of space and noise in this track, so the music breathes, but the layered guitars can also cause quite a ruckus at times. There is a nice mix of beauty and dissonance through it all. At 5 minutes, the bass starts to create some structure as the other instruments drone and flutter around softly. Again, there are plenty of sounds and effects to latch on to here, but there is still plenty of space in the music so that it isn't all just a chaotic wall of noise, everyone is given their chance to express themselves quite well.

"Lesser Being" (10:01) features Trey McLamb on drums backing up the psychedelic wanderings of Du Bose and Eacho. Minimal echoing flutes and guitar swirl around along with occasional effects. At 2 minutes, the music settles in to a structured drum pattern that starts and stops and allows the violin to establish a nice melody, however, this is soon interrupted by the drums changing the structure and causing the guitar to squeal and groan and the violin squeals and cries out. The drums tend to wander from structure to looseness and the instruments follow suit. At 4 minutes, things turn quite pastoral when the drums become more unstructured and allow the acoustic guitar to shine through as the flutes, violin and tonal percussion create some nice flourishes. Around 6 minutes, the drums start to roll along and a distant mid-Eastern melody comes along and we enter real experimental and psychedelic territory. The music reminds one of "A Saucerful of Secrets" when the drums enter that stage and the instruments play along in a loose improvisation. After 7 minutes, things smooth out again, and then a new, more standard pattern works itself out with the drum pattern and everything seems more structured. This gets interrupted by occasional pauses, but the pattern continues through the rest of the track.

"Fortune Teller" (7:26) brings in Santiago Fradejas on guitars and Magnvs Mendez on drums. Some interesting effects starts it all off sounding like a happy space jam, but it quickly turns dark with the extra guitar layers, and the flutes try their best to lighten it up, but can't really loosen the dark hold by the guitars. Whispering spoken vocals are heard for a short time. The heavy texture continues, yet, again, there is still plenty of breathing room around the improvising and noise effects. The flutes continue to occasionally contrast against the bass and noisy, grumbling guitar and this creates quite a nice and interesting texture.

The music is quite loose and experimental on this album, but the one thing that sets it apart from other instrumental and experimental jams is that this music plays around with space a lot better, not drowning the listener in chaotic noise jams, but instead allow the music to breathe with ample space in most cases. I really love the sound of this, plus the fact that the percussion and drums alternate from free jams to structured patterns, consantaly giving the listener variety in the sound as it wanders from odd experimental passages while providing "handles" that the listener can grab a hold of along the way in order to establish reference points among the looser passages. It all works out quite well in the end, and the shorter run time makes sure it doesn't wear out it's welcome, even though I would have been just as happy with a few more tracks. Those that love their music experimental, but not over the top, should enjoy this album, but the music is mostly quite dark, as is the case with most of Fervent Send's music.