Alta Forma – Spatium & Tempus (Antoine Fafard, 2022)
“Spatium & Tempus” is the debut album of a dazzling new progressive rock band called Alta Forma. The project is led by talented guitarist, bassist and composer Antoine Fafard. This recording marks a new direction for Fafard. His previous projects featured instrumental progressive jazz-rock fusion featuring some of the top musicians in the genre. The main change in Spatium & Tempus is the addition of vocals. Additionally, Alta Forma has more of a progressive rock feel.
Fafard still delivers prodigiously performed guitar and bass work, supported by creative drums, but the addition of vocals adds a new fascinating component. The singer is American keyboardist and producer JK Harrison, who has an appealing and expressive vocal style that sometimes reminds me of Stanley Whitaker (Happy the Man) and Echolyn.
What I love about this project is that Antoine Fafard’s guitar bending fusion style (influenced by Alan Holdsworth and John McLaughlin) goes so much better with progressive rock than other guitar styles.
The lineup includes Antoine Fafard on guitar and bass; JK Harrison on vocals and keyboards; and Todd Sucherman on drums and percussion.
Todd Sucherman has played with melodic rock band Styx for over 20 years. While being an in demand session drummer, he has won to this day nine readers’ poll awards in Modern Drummer Magazine.
Originally from Chicago, JK Harrison has been a close collaborator with Todd Sucherman since their early years. A Grammy winner, JK has produced and or collaborated with countless artists.
Fafard’s superb music catalog features collaborations with some of the world’s finest and influential players, including Vinnie Colaiuta, Jerry Goodman, Gavin Harrison, Gary Husband, Simon Phillips and Dave Weckl.
Antoine Fafard says in the liner notes: “Spatium & Tempus, or space & time, is a title that I thought was well-fitted for this project. Time is a recurrent theme in my songs, with the word often mentioned. Music isn’t static and is essentially a manifestation of notes through time. It exists within a time period, while any attempt to master it or express art within the medium has to do with the placement of notes through time. This is why the notion of time is a continuous and unavoidable fact for any musician.“
“All the themes covered in the lyrics on the album are dealing with universal subject matters. For the most part, the meaning of each song isn’t deeply hidden into metaphorical imagery. The writing was done pretty quickly once the ideas I wanted to convey had been identified.”
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