The Empyrean
Last modified: 21:47:05 CET on 24 Nov, 2011 |
The first couple of listens to the The Empyrean were pretty much like travelling without moving - as if someone was replaying a movie or a theatre play with many special effects, sudden changes in the script, improvs, incredible highs and incredible lows on and on throughout the night; and suddenly I felt like I had a minor supporting role added to the script in messy handwritten footnotes. And, as if it was a kaleidoscope or a painting a wave would leave in the sand, experience was never the same. At some points, it was giving me goosebumps, at some points, my heart was beating faster; and then, it would calm down to a state where I would have to be really calm to make through the whispers. It ended just the way it started: abruptly, with a single loud drum beat, fading to ten seconds of total silence. And then it begun again. And, frankly, I could repeat it until my modest audio device's motor blows out.
Delicate piano would suddenly be overlapped with heavy guitar riffs, to further become a colourful solo, to end up drowning into a sea of strings, with the voice varying from Mephisto-esque baritone on One More Of Me to almost angelic falsetto leads sung in front of a gospel choir on the Light park of Dark/Light. There were howls and screams too, but given the dramatic story the album appears to be telling, each one of them was necessary and each one of them was in a properly calculated spot and fine-tuned to cause just the right reaction from the listener. Or, at least this particular listener.
The Empyrean might be an ecletic, hurricane-like story, a dense avalanche of emotion packed into a little more than two hours; the highest point in heaven taken centuries and light years away from how Dante imagined it to be. Close your eyes, sit comfortably and allow yourselves to be taken to a whole new different world. My advice would be not to skip any of the songs and to try to listen to The Empyrean in its entity, from (before the)beginning to (after) the end(ing). The feeling is completely different when you let them flow into one another and allow all the curves, bumps and vortexes take you for a ride. And, as the sticker on the Japanese version of the CD says...turn it up!
*The above review has a longer version, which you can read on this particular page.
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Track Listing, Song Information And Lyrics
- Before The Beginning
- Song To The Siren [?]
- Unreachable [6:11]
- God
- Dark/Light
- Heaven
- Enough Of Me
- Central
- One More Of Me
- After The Ending
- + Today
- + Ah Yom
Trivia
All the interesting stuff harvested from January 2005 on can be found on the history page
Useful links
Buy the album
Go to John's official site to read his blog, there's a lot about The Empyrean
Go to John's MySpace page to hear Unreachable.
The album FAQ
The Empyrean group on Last.fm
The Empyrean group on Facebook
Credits
Release date: 27th January 2009
Released: Worldwide
Publisher: Record Collection Music
Duration: 1:02:23 (with bonus tracks)
Credits: Full list is here - too big for this page
Recorded/mixed at/when:John's home studio - December 2006-March 2008
Cover photographs/collage by: Sarah Sitkin (uncredited)
Art Direction: Uknown
Album Artwork
This is the list of credits from the album booklet.
Before the Beginning
Mixed by John and Adam
John - Guitars, Treatments
Josh - Electric Piano, Drums
Song to the Siren
Mixed by John, Chris Holmes, Adam and Josh
John - Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Treatments
Josh - Organ, Electric Piano, Acoustic Piano, Synthesizer, Treatments
Unreachable
Mixed by John, Adam and Josh
John - Vocals, Guitars, Treatments
Josh - Electric Piano, Drums
Flea - Bass
God
Mixed by John, Adam and Josh
John - Vocals, Guitar, Treatments
Josh - Synthesizer, Electric Piano, Drums
Flea - Bass
Sonus Quartet - Strings
Geoff Gallegof - String Arrangement
Dark
Mixed by John, Chris Holmes and Josh
John - Vocals, Piano, Treatments
Josh - Organ
Light
Mixed by John and Adam
John - Lead Vocal, Guitar, Bass, Synthesizer, Drum Machine, Treatments
Lawrence Young - Vocal
Donald Taylor and the New Dimension Singers - Voices
Heaven
Mixed by John, Adam and Josh
John - Vocal, Guitar, Synthesizer
Josh - Organ, Electric Piano, Drums
Flea - Bass
Sonus Quartet - Strings
Neel Hammond - String Arrangement
Enough of Me
Mixed by John, Adam and Josh
John - Vocals, Guitars and Treatments
Josh - Backing Vocal, Organ, Electric Piano, Drums
Johnny Marr - Guitars
Flea - Bass
Central
Mixed by John, Adam and Josh
John - Vocals, Guitars, Treatments
Josh - Synth, Acoustic Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Drums
Johnny Marr - Guitars
Sonus Quartet - Strings
Vanessa Freeibarn Smith - String Arrangements
One More Of Me
Mixed by John and Adam
John - Vocal
Josh - Electric Piano
Sonus Quartet - Strings
Geoff Gallegof - String Arrangement
After the Ending
Mixed by John and Adam
John - Vocal, Piano, Synthesizer, Treatments, Drum Machine
Today
Mixed by John, Josh and Adam
John - Vocals, Guitars, Synthesizer, Treatments
Josh - Drums
Flea - Bass
Ah Yom
Mixed by John, Josh and Adam
John - Vocals, Guitars, Treatments
Josh - Drums, Electric Piano
Flea - Bass
Produced by John Frusciante
Recorded by Ryan Hewitt and Adam Samuels
Recording Assistance by Sara Killion
Instrument Tech during basic tracks was Dave Lee
Production Coordination by Anthony Zamora
Ryan Hewitt recorded tracks 2, 3, 4, 5 (first half), 6, 7 and 8
Adam Samuels recorded tracks 1, 5 (second half), 9 and 10
Sonus Quartet is:
Caroline Campbell - Violin
Neel Hammond - Violin
Andrew Dukles - Viola
Vanessa Freebairn-Smith - Cello
Donald Taylor and the New Dimension Singers are:
Donald Taylor (Director), Alfie Silas, Pat Lee, Nikki Erwin, Nita Hutton, Sharon Bryant, Tamara Mitchell, Caprisha Smyles, Tracy Carter, Tony Wilkins, Lawrence Young
To make it easier for Invisible Movement visitors, I have tried to compile a list of frequently asked questions about The Empyrean. I tried to cover as many possible questions and group them into categories; but if there is no answer for what you wanted to know; Ask away and perhaps there's a way. The forum is a good place to ask as well as there's a four-digit number of people who could help you out.
Concept/Story
One of the songs is called God, John calls himself a man on the cross in Central...what are John's personal beliefs?
Whatever they are, they're his personal thing. It's rude to question others' beliefs.
Where can I read more about the concept of this album, its cryptic lyrics and the background story?
John's blog
Hillingdon Mind Interview outtakes
MusicRadar podcast transcript
What does the word Empyrean mean?
According to Dante Alighieri, the Empyrean is the place where God and the souls of those who redeemed their sins reside. It's located outside of the nine spheres surrounding the Earth in the heliocentric system. It was described in the four last cantos of Paradiso, the third and final part of the Divine Comedy.
So, is this album related to The Divine Comedy?
From what was heard so far, the answer is likely no. The Empyrean is used as a symbol/metaphore/comparison; and that's been more or less explained on John's blog.
Where can I find the lyrics for this album?
In the booklet. And here.
I heard that John did a mental-health related interview which is somewhat related to creation of this album...what is it? Where is it?
Yes. Chris Phillips of Hillingdon Mind spoke to John on the phone for a couple of hours and the results of it are an exclusive interview accompanied by two handwritten song lyrics; and also outtakes of the interview which have been kindly given to this site by mr. Phillips himself. The interview still hasn't been completely transcribed, by the way.
The last four lines of After The Ending from the booklet are nowhere to be heard on the album!
You need to turn up the volume, as John is whispering them.
What does Ah Yom mean?
John said that it means a period of time in Hebrew. However, native speakers of Hebrew said that it means Today and that it's actually written Ha Yom. This would mean that bonus songs have the same title.
And what is Ahm Yum / Aum Yaum?
No idea, sorry.
Album Distribution
Where can I buy this album?
This would be the official retailer and this would be the list of some assorted retailers for all versions of the album.
Is this album available on a LP?
Yes, it is.
What's the deal with the Japanese version of this album?
It's a SHM-CD (super high material CD) and it also contains two bonus tracks: Today and Ah Yom.
