“PALAZZO” finds FORRM working where experimental rock and electronic music collide with cinematic composition, using atmosphere as the fabric of a song rather than an afterthought. The single offers a taste of FORRM – the free-wielding multidisciplinary project helmed by Iranian-French artist/filmmaker/musician Firouz Farman Farmaian in an expansive track grounded in the physical.
Written at Bloom Studios, “PALAZZO” plays with a back and forth between acoustic instrumentation and electronic sound design. The acoustic intentions create a window into the song, while guitars, bass, percussion, and electronic instrumentation shift and spiral around its center. The song avoids the usual repetition of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instead swinging constantly and shifting in density, volume, and air.
This is reflective of the general way in which FORRM operates: traveling between the worlds of music, film, contemporary art and site-specific work. “PALAZZO” obviously feels very much like it is built out of these other disciplines in the way it is developed; it creates its visual environment rather than following it.
The Venice and Palazzo Dandolo references are perhaps the most helpful to this task. The production has an architectural feeling to it, with echo and multilayered instrumentation making it feel further away from the listener and larger. It is perhaps less about trying to sonically recreate Venice than about capturing an idea of the place: history, movement, spectacle, and mystery.
The guitars really work on this track to keep it in touch with rock. The tone of the guitars keeps the production from becoming too slick while the electronic elements extend the sonic range without dominating the live instruments. The rhythm section delivers the drive beneath the atmospheric sections.
Another major element to consider in the mix is the vocal performance. This is prominently featured because of its contrary directness to the spaciousness of the production, allowing the listener to feel as though there is a human element in a rather heavily designed setting. This prevents it from floating entirely as an ambient piece.
However, a sacrifice has to be made. “PALAZZO” is less about single moments or “hooks”, or traditional song structure and more about a feeling, a mood and building slowly. For someone used to more traditionally-structured music, with tightly-wound hooks, it may take longer to get into. But that also means that the track retains its cinematic quality.
The strength of “PALAZZO” lies precisely in the correspondence of ideas and implementation. FORRM’s desire to unite rock and cinema, visual art and physical spaces is taken to the music; it is not only in the presentation.
“PALAZZO” is thus a house for exploring, and the focus is less on a resolution of a cliff-hanging hook than on the environment it is created to be experienced in.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
