Even though the name of this release is rather cliché, it can be pardoned since the listening experience of Andy Leech’s “The Journey” truly feels like a grand voyage in the making. During 6 minutes we’re baptised in a pool of airy ambient textures in what sounds like a Brian Eno ft Hans Zimmer soundtrack with a modern twist.
After leaving this on repeat for roughly 15 min, I noticed that detecting whether the track has just ended or just begun is a tricky task. “The Journey” makes use of silence in an elaborate manner, either to heighten dramatic effect or create the kind of anticipation that will have you salivating for the drop. This may come off strange but the last climax around the 4 minute mark sounds like an entirely new one compared to the first climax all because of the intricate use of silence within the build-up. Soft keys layered with bells repeat throughout (with the tiniest of variations) to form a haunting melody, and further contributes to the confusion of identifying whether you’re at the beginning, middle, or end. Honestly you could listen to this on repeat for a good 45 minutes and maybe get bored only in the next hour. This says a lot about the composition of “The Journey.” Ambient music has beauty even if ignored; just decorating the background of the listener yet still sharing the same kind of sentiment (probably more) whilst the attention of the listener is firm in its grasp. “The Journey” embodies that in every possible way.
If I were to tell my friends about this song and describe it as “fire/faya/flames/heatâ€, it’d be a great insult by virtue of how deep this journey is. The amalgamation of strings and pads I suspect is the reason behind the perceived depth. It is so deep that one literally feels small listening to it because the sounds are so BIG. A general “earthy†and natural vibe is present, and that is why we see mountains, bottomless oceans and wide valleys during this listening experience. The drums add to this as well. They don’t impose themselves on the stereo field like the strings do, but it sounds as if they are side chained to them thus acting like a trigger and controlling their gradual rise. This actually produces a calming effect since the dense load is released smoothly into our ears. An opportunity for human-to-human reliability is also present in the song, particularly in the second climax with the introduction of sampled female vocals. We as humans are (key words) *more likely* to connect with a piece of music which contains vocals rather than just electronics. I could be wrong but that’s just a theory.
“The Journey” is available on all digital streaming platforms and we wouldn’t be surprised if time passed and we heard it on a film. It’s cinematic, captivating and has large amounts of replay value. Â