Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Are we the parts that we chose to cultivate, the interests we refused to let go; or are we the result of determination that was passed down by the branches of our family tree that never had the chance or the choice to be realised in the past, and which only now are being asserted in our possible futures?
Choices they are not ours to make, despite the illusion of options and preference, in truth the determination of variety has been long selected before we arrived at the moment of truth, and it is moment few of us our willing to acknowledge, let alone discuss in conversation or admire in the world of art.
It takes understanding to respond to the nature of time’s selection, it takes a certain mind to willingly explore and then present a detailed framework that appeals to the soul and the imagination in one full sweep, a giant of expression that combines a virtuoso’s all reaching musical ability and the voices that add the human factor to the detail of time being discussed.
Darrel Treece-Birch’s Atlantea brings the finest of Choices to the listener’s heart and mind, and it is one that showcases the absolute dream application of musicianship that Mr. Treece Birch has become renowned for, and the physical beauty that comes from the human voice being given range from a various conglomerate of artists only to happy to add their belief to the music.
There is always room for the art of Progressive Rock to encompass more than a single interpretation, and in the vocals and vocalist enlisted, Darrel Treece-Birch’s Atlantea takes on a mantle that few attempt, and even less could make seamless and burn with the ferocity of a statement being undisputed by all.
The album, which features vocals by performers such as Eoin de Paor, Goerge Aspiotis, Kayleigh Treece Birch, Alexandre Santos, Tony Mitchell, and Maaike Siegerist, fuses the finest of elements of Progressive introspection, and the detail of the making music sing, and as tracks such as the album opener, We Are The Voices, The Watchers, the finesse of One And The Same, If We Could, The Promise, and the pride of natural outlook in the scintillating Rise Above, those parts of us that we assume are choices are in reality the proof of intelligent design, the truth of expression given life.
An album of sheer intellect and dynamic, an album unafraid to meld and work hard to have the listener fall in love; and love they do, for Darrel Treece-Birch’s Atlantea is a choice made easy, and Choices well earned.
Ian D. Hall