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Music Review • August 2010
Silhouette of a Season
Matt Millecchia; 2008; $12.00; www.mattmillecchia.com
It’s summer, that gentlest of all the seasons — unless you’re in east county or (this year) in any one of dozens of hot places across the country. Matt Millecchia’s debut album, Silhouette of a Season, brings us some of the gentlest acoustic guitar sounds you could hope to treat your heart to — and like the weather, this CD is brimming with surprising contrasts.
From the opening of the first cut, it struck me that there was something different here, something both light and deep that kept— I don’t know, sort of folding in on itself. I found I couldn’t turn away. I kept listening as the music moved from spare and introspective to full-bodied and uplifting, inspiring me with its eerie blend of pensive simplicity and emotional sophistication. I was hooked.
Can I speak of the simplicity of complexity? The texture of the compositions is a perfect reflection of this artist’s wide-ranging interests and expertise. Coming from a punk rock and psychedelic metal band background as a teen, Matt reportedly moved into what he calls “instrumental math rock” while developing his own unique and thoughtful style.
Like his music, Matt’s life is multifaceted: when he’s not playing or composing, he teaches martial arts and works as a senior laboratory engineer at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics in a program to perfect water-based fusion energy for potential widespread use. It takes a well rounded mind to create music like this.
Produced by Will Ackerman (the Grammy award-winning founder of Windham Hill Records) and engineered and mastered by fellow Grammy winner Corin Nelsen, the CD features twelve evocative solo compositions, four of them featuring Matt on solo guitar (with no other sounds overdubbed) and the rest combining his stellar flat-pick guitar style with contributions from world class new age musicians: cellist Eugene Friesen, Michael Manring and T. Bone Wolk on bass guitar, Derrik Jordan on percussion and electric violin, Steve Schuch on violin, Jeff Oster on flugelhorn, and Samite on silver flute.
Silhouette of a Season is beautiful, enjoyable and interesting. Very much worth your time.
—Chiwah