Deep emotional trauma drives Christopher Bono’s latest work with Woodstock-based GAG.
Such was the impact of 2014’s unspecified family tragedy that he broke from completing an in-progress concept album to forge a cathartic purge sung from the lyrical angle of the victim: his mother. Reaching into his classical background and love of Floyd and Vangelis, Bono, joined by Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen, guitarist Anthony Molina and a spectral choir, constructs monolithic epics, embodied by the 10-minute title track’s disembodied confessional over transcendental space chorale. The swooning widescreen drama of the two-part The River Of The Intimate starts with a dreamy mist of strings and Vangelis piano before vocals loom, flecked with a hint of Gabriel. Planets dissolve and morph like early Tangs on the weightless drift of Your Secret Ocean, and if there’s an unashamed prog ballad heaven, Resume could be its earthly manifestation. This leaves Guerison as the grand, wordless finale, littered with childhood field recordings and voices in the ether, completing an intensely moving masterwork that took a lot for Bono to unburden from his devastated soul. He deserves support.
