PATRICK RONDAT: Escape From Shadows (GUITAR HERO): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

He's been talking about this new album for years. Grief, doubt, life passing by, changing priorities and the impression of having already said everything musically have postponed the deadline so many times that his fans hardly believed in it any more. So when Patrick Rondat announced the official release of “Escape From Shadows”, 21 years after “An Ephemeral World”, the community of French guitarists wavered, overcome by excitement, impatience and emotion. Because, yes, it's all about emotion. The emotion of rediscovering the master of the back-and-forth, the disciple of Al Di Meola, the musician who paved the way for so many others in France, proving that it was possible to record instrumental guitar albums without necessarily copying the Americans. And above all, the emotion of reuniting with an old friend whom we've never really lost sight of, and with whom we still have so much to share.

This emotion runs through the whole album, with each track reminding us just how much we've missed Patrick Rondat as a solo artist over the years, despite his frequent collaborations with other artists. His phrasing, his touch, his sense of melody, his ability to compose music that is complex in structure and limpid in execution... nothing has really changed, and yet everything seems new, as if “Escape From Shadows” were the album we've been waiting for without really realizing it. Rondat's style hasn't aged a day, and with maturity, it's improved to focus on the essentials: superb melodies serving a music that has never been so influenced by progressive rock (‘Invisible Wars’ keyboards) and progressive metal (‘Fear And Guilt’, ‘Escape From Shadows’, ‘From Nowhere’).

In full possession of his powers, the guitarist transports us from the very first notes of the symphonic ‘Overture’, never to let go. He takes us on a musical journey in his own image: warm, humble, sometimes teasing (the winks to Satriani on the excellent ‘Whispery Hopes’), and sometimes genuinely surprising, as on the album's only vocal track, ‘Now We're Home’, which is again pierced by the emotion of Gaëlle Buswel's blues-rock voice. And even though “Escape From Shadows” is less technical than “An Ephemeral World” and more in the vein of ‘Amphibia’, Patrick Rondat closes the album with a real guitar prowess, with his own interpretation of the classic piece “Kreisler - Prelude And Allegro”, much more tense than the version he recorded with Hervé N'Kaoua, and on which he shines with his expressiveness and virtuosity.

“Escape From Shadows” is a remarkable album in every way, in its conception, its assertive progressive edge, its cinematic ambience and its legitimate obsession with putting technique at the service of music. At a time when social networks are invaded by apprentice shredders who too often confuse speed with haste, Patrick Rondat shows that a guitarist must above all be a musician, and that this is the only condition for lasting success. No one knows whether this album will mark the end of a career, or even the end of an era, but in any case, it's one to keep preciously in one's record library, as it is a poignant tribute by a great artist to the guitar as a means of expressing a unique personality. - Official website

PATRICK RONDAT

ESCAPE FROM SHADOWS

VERYCORDS

GUITAR HERO