New Age Music World

Much like the seasonal changes we encounter daily at various locations around the world, many musicians I encounter have their own change in atmosphere in relation to the music they produce.  Their adaptations in style and structure can sometimes be expected to a degree, but most times it is tempered just like the weather and cannot be easily predicted.

Matt Millecchia is a great example of a guitar player making a more profound change in his performance style by releasing of all things, a new age album.  Currently residing in New York, Matt is most acclimated to performances with various metal rock, punk and folk bands over the past 20 years and really not a matter of being a hot to cold disparity by this, but this departure certainly is polarizing.  Interestingly, he is also a senior engineer who takes precision measurements on one of the most powerful lasers ever produced so is uniquely familiar with the technical aspects of extremes.

Silhouette of a Season is his more equalizing new age contemporary instrumental debut with 12 original compositions featuring Matt on 4 solo guitar songs.  Employing another key change in style, he specializes in the flat-pick method of acoustic guitar verses a more common finger style and has also enlisted notable artists most will recognize.

Taking the legendary journey to Imaginary Road Studios in Vermont, GRAMMY® Winner and founder of Windham Hill Records Will Ackerman has produced and performs guitar with Matt on two songs.  Another GRAMMY® Award-winner Corin Nelsen engineered, mixed and mastered this album so the quality shines by their expertise, plus the all inclusive list of top musicians on various songs which includes Michael Manring on bass, Eugene Friesen on cello, the late T-Bone Wolk on bass and accordion, Derrik Jordan on electric violin and percussion, Jeff Oster on flugelhorn, Steve Schuch on acoustic violin, and Samite on flute.

Silhouette of a Season shows a natural beauty in composition and performance while dramatizing a glowing atmosphere during each of the 12 songs placed mainly in a moderate tempo.   All have a pleasing feel of radiance and song Arrivials is the first prelude into the many qualities you will experience on the entire album.  Orchestra and electric violins provide a swaying motion while guitars evenly enhance this refined image by counter rhythms and then again in a more pronounced Summer Tears.

Antietam Spring is a light introspective song where accordion and guitar inscribe a peaceful feeling while achieving a pleasing sense of intrigue and perhaps only natural given the interesting choice in instrumental harmonies.

The guitar pairing of flugelhorn in Mist and cello in Acid Lake are like the percussion, guitar and flute instrumentals in Sphynx where each artist imparts their proficient expressions while revealing the fine naturalistic atmosphere envisioned for each song.

Matt Millecchia takes a graceful departure apart from more familiar genres by the 4 solo guitar improvisations of Georgia Springs, Expectations, August Eclipse & Moonset and while adapting this gentle change of seasons with over 20 years of experience and by using the flat-pick method without sub-rhythm overdubbing.  The transition is made solid by a fine performance, along with his artistic stance on the evenly represented concepts of harmony.

Silhouette of a Season is an album anyone can become acclimated with every single day of the year and since the glorious presentation given by every musician transposes a fine exploration in atmosphere, their precise harmonies bring to light an integral shine for success which to me, turns out to be an even more predictable quality.

Visit mattmillecchia.com to sample / purchase or at his CDBaby.com page.  Learn more about Matt on his biography page.

Photo copyright Matt Millecchia and Cover courtesy of Marcia Birken.

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