Good NightOwl – Encounters (2022)
Artist: Good NightOwl
Album: Encounters
Genre: Eclectic Prog
Year Of Release: 2022
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
1. The Thought Collector (3:59)
2. Encounters (5:16)
3. Another Phase (5:49)
4. All That You Find (4:39)
5. Ever-Changing Presence (5:31)
6. The Thought Collector (instrumental) (4:00)
7. Encounters (instrumental) (5:16)
8. Another Phase (instrumental) (5:33)
9. All That You Find (instrumental) (4:44)
10. Ever-Changing Presence (instrumental) (5:31)
Personnel:
– Daniel Cupps / guitars, bass, vocals, keyboards, MIDI programming, composer, lyrics & concepts
– Joshua Cook / drums, composer
I would say we do need a thought collector now. Encounters in multiple. On one hand, okay, probably shame on me, because I’m late. As there are already a bunch of project albums available waiting for a try. Means, it’s the first time that I came in touch with this interesting music entity, currently driven by the US boys Daniel Cupps and Joshua Cook. Eh, better late than never. But then furthermore, wtf, I began to ponder about any plausible reason why one would cut out the vocals regarding those amazing five compositions that are available on this production. Okay, scratching the surface a bit, let’s say this is covered by the term artistical freedom, agreed? If you start while listening to the non vocal versions, would you really miss something? Such complex eclectic music assigned with vocals, is this successfully manageable basically? Oh, another phase, in the end this may turn into a highly philosophical issue.
You may call it a trickery, to present an album of round about 50 minutes running time, which turns out to be solely the half of it actually. Possibly justified, if it hadn’t worked out sooooooo well. And then later, at some point, the current attitude of these night owls will make sense actually, in a very special manner. Okay, as noted beforehand, those two musicians are providing all the instrumental (and vocal) input, and also do share the songwriting and composing. No guests here, what I can see. Their music is made of a complex nature, that’s obvious. At first glance it sounded somewhat bulky, less accessible. But this definitely needs time to become apparent, several attempts. Ever-changing presence, that’s the mantra here. Who will find the right words to describe the offered inspiration, energy, skills, musicianship? I give up, can’t get at it, I’ll give you that.
Review by Rivertree