Brent Vallefuoco – Higher (2011)

Inspired by Great Science-Fiction films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Akira and Blade Runner, this album is a cosmic-themed Space-Rock adventure fit to be a soundtrack to a voyage into the world beyond the world.

Inspired by Great Science-Fiction films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Akira and Blade Runner, this album is a cosmic-themed Space-Rock adventure fit to be a soundtrack to a voyage into the world beyond the world. Complimented by thoughtful lyrics and musical influences from several Progressive-Rock artists and film soundtracks, this album is an experience to be had.

I originally planned this album to be a Concept Album with a story about a distressed child desperately trying to fit in with a world he hated and could not understand, but as time went on, I became more interested in giving this album a Science-Fiction theme. So the only real possible concept linking the whole album together is its adventurous feel, but it really isn’t a Concept Album.

While there isn’t any real link connecting the whole album together, there are two common ideas; the nature of the universe and the nature of family.

The first track on the album, “Gods In Hell (Intro)” presents a metaphoric replacement of Nature and Analog music with Machinery and Electronic music. It is meant to lead into “Gods In Hell,” which discusses that due to technology, humanity has changed into something else and lost its true nature. Also dealing with the universe, “Akira,” discusses the theme of the Universe being cyclic in several ways, which is also a prominent theme in Katsuhiro Otomo’s Anime masterpiece of the same name.

The other thematic group of songs in the album is “Hope In Desperation”, “Who Are You?” and “A Doll’s House.” The first song, the most personal on this album, is about my unborn brother, who died through miscarriage after 7 months of my mother’s pregnancy. After having ill feelings about having a new member of the family, I felt disgusted at myself once he had died. I found myself wondering what it would’ve been like if I would’ve known him, feeling more remorse the more I wondered. I decided to channel those feelings into the song. The theme of the next song, “Who Are You?”, is about the extreme limitations of communication. We can never truly know each other, because there is no way to communicate every experience an individual has had to another. All we can ever truly know about a person is their appearance, the things we are told about them (which may not even be true) and the things that we see them do. We can never truly know their thought process, their true feelings and everything that they’ve experienced. We can not even imagine the complexity of another human being. The final song in this group, “A Doll’s House”, combines these themes into one and states that the idea of family technically only exists in our minds, so families that do not get along well should not have to feel like they owe each other something. Rather, they should be able to go their separate ways and not have a commitment to each other.

1. Gods In Hell, (Intro) 01:55
2. Gods In Hell, 05:53
3. Noir, 03:37
4. Akira, 06:55
5. Lyrics From A Cloud, 04:31
6. Hope In Desperation, 09:01
7. Who Are You?, 06:05
8. A Doll’s House, 05:58
9. A Doll’s House (Outro), 02:58

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