Ben Beckman - VOYAGE (2021)

VOYAGE is a musical journey, an odyssey of creativity, exploration, and reflection. A concept album with a programmatic trajectory, its structure forms an arc that narrates the progression of an expedition. We begin with 'You Don’t Know You’re Lost' – a piece that captures a feeling of wanderlust, an ambition or drive to set off into the unknown. Whether we recognize it or not, many of us with these feelings are already lost in our world. An ascending perfect fifth gesture, repeated throughout the album, heralds our time to set out: 'Departure' is an exhilarating and intricate track that harmonizes its melody twice – initially, unstable and uncertain of what is to come; at the piece’s conclusion, in full force, ready and raring to go. We have left our home, our place of comfort, setting out on 'Pathway' as the band navigates twists and turns of varying textures and rhythmic changes. This track marks the first instance of vocals on the album, a marker of our progress – a light to guide us travelers on our long and winding road. But our voyage is not only in the literal, as we see something 'Through the Haze' – a vision of the beyond, of a destination, of a light at the end of the tunnel. A gentle and eventually uplifting ballad, the track reminds us of what we have lost as we continue on our way, a prayer that our memories are only blessings. But our vision is fleeting, and our voyage must continue, as we 'Traverse' further onwards. At some points gentle and delicate, at others angsty and harsh, the track’s harmony meanders through a series of descending fifths. We are further and further lost in some spiral, reaching towards a destination but never making any progress at all. At last, we arrive at a bed of 'Mists', confused, disoriented, and perhaps wary: but soon they clear, revealing great peril. 'Harrower' is a blindingly fast and intense track, propelled by the exhilaration of being on the edge, of being only this close to destruction. But through it all, we remain determined to continue. After the moment of danger recedes, we finally, and at long last, reach 'Zenith', the emotional summit of our journey and the musical climax of the album. An 8-minute-long voyage in itself, the in-unison djent climax of the piece is the apex of the album’s arc: our journey’s end is finally in sight. But within view of our terminus, we reach 'Disjunction', which confronts us with a question: is our true goal in our destination, or in the journey that we experience along the way? The concluding track, 'Beyond' – a more contained but more mysterious semi-reprise of the album’s opening – serves to leave that question ambiguous. But in its depths, we do realize one thing: for all of the distance we have travelled, there is still so much more that lies beyond our horizons, waiting for the next voyage to come.