ÆRA: A Winter's Tale
Faith Strange

After dazzling in 2020 with his multi-volume orchestramaxfieldparrish set Guitar Improvisations I-VI, Mike Fazio does so again, though this time under the ÆRA alias. Issued on cassette, A Winter's Tale sees him operating in ambient soundscaping mode with four immersive pieces totaling seventy-six minutes. While the release doesn't copy what's come before, it does follow in the footsteps of hugely influential ambient albums that appeared in the ‘70s, including Eno's Discreet Music and Music For Airports.

After the title track enters boldly with Vangelis-like flourishes reminiscent of the Blade Runner soundtrack, the material casts itself as an ambient soundscape that's veritably symphonic in its grandeur. Fazio demonstrates exceptional mastery at sustaining tension and control in his execution here. Tones stretch out magnificently during the nineteen-minute excursion to intensify the music's impact. It's not classical music, formally speaking, yet there's an elegance to the compositional unfolding that lends it a gracefulness characteristic of the form. The treatments Fazio's applied make it difficult to determine whether the instruments used to generate the material are synthesizers or guitars, but the point's ultimately moot: what matters is the sound hovering in the air and floating, be it majestically or serenely, through it. Enhancing the material's entrancing character is the numerous times its chord sequences tease at resolution, the effect made all the more powerful when Fazio extends the length of the tones to maximize tension before resolution occurs.

Organ appears to be the primary sound source for “A Snowflake Falls From Cloud to Earth,” the tone of this setting quietly ecstatic. Organ flurries create the impression of a dense snowfall, with the mood created by the material akin to the replenishment one experiences hiking through a forest blanketed by snow on a winter morning. The uplift expressed in the second setting carries over into “Children With Their Faces Skyward, Spinning in Circles, with Arms Outstretched,” with the sense of wonder captured in “A Snowflake Falls From Cloud to Earth” conveyed through a series of incrementally ascending gestures, soft glimmerings, and gentle percolations. For twenty-three minutes, the music imparts a sense of quiet rapture, after which “A Pearl in Sorrow's Hands” strips the recording's overall sound design to its orchestral essence. Like a sleeping body's gentle breathing, tones rise and fall peacefully, Fazio's material conveying an impression of contentment and, once again, wonderment. All told, A Winter's Tale is a remarkable statement and one that feels perfect for a time when music's nourishing quality is so desperately needed.

February 2021