2012 by Mark Dwane

He's primarily a guitar player and his songs are built around electric and acoustic guitars, and most notably, his MIDI-guitar or guitar synthesizer. He uses this device to bring an orchestra of sounds to his strings.

"Skywatchers" is quintessential Mark Dwane, with a surging, filtered electronic rhythm sequence demarcated by strumming acoustic guitar and topped by swelling string-like synthesizers and some of Mark's own patented sounds like an echoing glissando trumpet choir. While many electronic musicians have given up the art of the solo, Mark Dwane whips it out, with a melodic lead that builds off his kinetic grooves. As a guitarist, Dwane has a melodic gift and dramatic sensibility that sets him apart. On a song like “Baktun Cycle,” plucked strings play off each other in a contrapuntal loop, while guitar strums emerge into a chordal solo.

Dwane makes effective use of environmental ambiences on songs like "The Sacred Tree" as very electronic sounding birds create stereo glissandos across his flute melody, blending into the echoes and rustles like a neon-lit jungle. The sound of rain mimics an electronic rainstick on one track and accompanies electronic droplets on another.

While so many electronic musicians have headed off into the drone zone of sonic abstraction, Mark Dwane is an artist who still believes in the power of melody, the grandeur of a big crescendo and the stories held within a dramatic turn. He brings it all together on his ninth CD, 2012, our Echoes CD of the Month for April 2007.

© 2007 John Diliberto

MARK DWANE

2012

Trondant/Orbian Music (2007)

Mark Dwane started playing spacemusic on guitar and (guitar) midi- synth in 1988 (The Monuments of Mars). 2012 is the next step in his evolution towards a more progressive fusion sound (a movement begun in earnest on Planetary Mysteries and continued on The Sirius Link. Dwane’s albums are always steeped in either science fiction or mythological influences and this one is no exception, drawing its title from the Mayan culture and featuring titles that pertain to it. While some trademark musical elements from previous Dwane recordings are present (e.g. the chorals, crescendos, arpeggios and soaring synths on the opening title track), other parts of the album reflect a prog rock/jazz fusion influence laced with ambient/electronica textures. As is usual for Dwane, 2012 is filled with complex, propulsive, energizing and imaginative music recorded with sterling production values and textbook engineering.

“Skywatchers” weds strummed guitars sparkling with chromium sheen, wailing tones and sequenced thumping rhythms. The emergence of stinging lead electric guitar and trap kit drums moves the piece into aggressive prog rock territory. At the start, “Baktun Cycle” crackles with a thunderclap and moves briskly forward with midtempo sampled hand percussion and a variety of lead and rhythm guitars, along with background chorals and spacy waves of melody. Decidedly different, “The Sacred Tree” features bird calls, some of which are altered to have a slightly alien-ish quality to them, slow measured tribal beats, what sounds like a wooden bass flute and some gentler world-fusion influenced guitar. “The End of Time” has an ambient/spacemusic prologue of haunting male and female chorals set against a backdrop of pealing electric lead guitar, nicely echoed for an added eerie effect. When the rhythms are folded in, they are of a tribal fusion variety, not unlike those heard on recordings from Kudzu or perhaps Archetribe. The music ramps up the energy but not to an overpowering degree so that the mood stays mysterious and intense. Likewise, “Codex” starts off quietly with falling rain and a repeating refrain on a shimmering harpsichord and synth. Trademark melodic textures are eased into the song as well as forceful piano. At about the half-way point (four and half minutes), trap kit drums pound out the midtempo rhythm and a new instrumental sound takes over the lead, before eventually submerging and leaving behind the opening instrumentation amidst the sound of rain again. “Ascension” closes the album with the most overt prog-rock sound yet, anchored by lighting flashes of power chords and soaring leads, acoustic rhythm guitar and snare/bass drum beats. While slow in tempo, this may be the hardest Dwane has rocked. Had he placed this song anywhere but last on the album, I might’ve taken issue with the song itself. However, with its celebratory mood (note the song title) long fadeout and as the closing cut, I can’t fault the artist, even though my personal taste runs toward the softer tracks on this CD.

In some ways, the more powerful guitar chops and aggressive musical and rhythmic stylings of 2012 may actually increase Mark Dwane’s audience, provided prog and fusion fans find out about it (hello, reviewers at Exposé magazine, are you listening?). Dwane’s music has always contained dramatic and rhythmic elements (check out tracks like “Solstice Ritual” on The Monuments of Mars), but 2012 explores less spacy landscapes in favor of a blend of the accessible with the exotic. Solidly recommended for progressive fusion fans and those who like to crank their music up (which is what this release deserves).

Bill Binkelman

New Age Reporter

MARK DWANE: 2012 (CD on Trondant/Orbian Music)

This release from 2007 offers 46 minutes of dreamy electronic music.

Lavish tonalities gather with dramatic intent, providing a dreamy foundation for Dwane's central themes and delicate embellishment. These airy passages establish a lush backdrop for Dwane's sultry guitarwork.

Guitars (MIDI and conventional electric axes) supply a host of ethereal sounds that undulate and pulsate in the tuneage. Nimble fingers generate riffs of sparkling character, from strummed chords to ricocheting melodies to searing pyrotechnics, all combining in a slick mix to form beautiful melodies that seethe with vitality and spiritual potency. Harmonic elements blend with energetic melodies to generate sensuous tuneage that touches the soul with the same power that it stimulates the mind. The riffs intertwine and cavort with a relaxed vibrancy that achieves a heart-stirring cadence.

There's some percussion, but many of the rhythms are created through guitar patterns that bounce with lively tempos. What e-perc there is resounds with soft impacts which somehow blaze with major passion despite their gentle presence.

The compositions exhibit immense humanity with melodies that combine an atmospheric quality with a distinct strength. This fusion of vigor and dreaminess is quite remarkable and thoroughly satisfying. While inducing introspection and leisure, the tunes are equally capable of stimulating expansive elation and thrilling exultation.

Matt Howarth / Sonic Curiosity

MARK DWANE 2012 (Trondant) • Mark Dwane is a guitarist, yes, but he’s as iconoclastic in his approach to the instrument as “guitarists” like Robert Fripp, Steve Hillage, Phil Manzanera, etc. A big proponent of MIDI and its varied interfaces, Dwane’s finger-plucked chords are dominant in the mix, right as rain, and shine like the crown jewels, though cocooned within the symphonic glaze of numerous synths and other devices he not only expands his instrument’s vocabulary but invents an entirely new syntax for its use.Calling out his favorite (and oft-used) pseudo-'prog' tropes offset by dungeons 'n' dragons sci-fi imagery, Dwane negates the faint whiff of cheese that tainted some of his recent ventures thanks to his dexterity, chops and compositional prowess. The widescreen production values don’t hurt, either. The record sounds absolutely gorgeous, a touch no doubt sustained over many years behind the console jockeying sounds into just the right positions. Wander across “Codex,” for example, Dwane orchestrating limpid pools of interweaving stringthings into which a summer shower pours out of the horizon, electronic gas bubbles softly rise, the atmosphere changes color, then out of nowhere drums beat out a chorus for the enveloping storm. All is not sturm und drang; both the title track and the closing “Ascension” convey arch, sweeping Vangelis-like majesty in the brashest sense, but it’s important to note that 2012’s tone alternates between the triumphant and the tender, emotional states juggled with the utmost cunning. Even when Dwane’s prog tendencies burst forth (obviously so on the Andy Pickford-esque space rock of “Skywatchers’), he keeps things lively enough that only the most chastising of listeners would turn a deaf ear—probably those listeners in a mad Rush wasting the years on their way to misguided 2112 nirvana.

Darren Bergstein E/I Magazine

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