monovoir | Vibrance

And we're back to the chill music.  At the end of the day, it's my favorite anyway.

Background

monovoir is an almost completely unknown artist, amassing only 3 tracks (this album) and 64 followers in over a year. But in this case, quality over quantity is good.  "Vibrance" sounds like Porter Robinson and Madeon had a musical child, and the result is a very peaceful 10 minute album.  The beautiful album artwork is the icing on the cake.

Review

Listen to "Vibrance"

Living up to its name, "Vibrance" is an album that paints a vibrant image, the same way Porter Robinson did with "Worlds."  While much shorter than its spiritual counterpart, monovoir wastes no time in delivering the same nostalgic feeling, even stating on his BandCamp page that "Vibrance" came from his "recent foray into [his] childhood," and that he tried to capture the old sounds from video games in this album.  The songs definitely sound nostalgic, and are filled to the brim with emotion.  "Drift Apart," the first track on the album, begins with a peaceful flute and piano duet, and adds a toybox arpeggio and some color notes from some strings.  The song's climax adds some chilled drums to the already peaceful mix, but the extra reverb drowns out the power of the chords a little bit.  "Somewhere," the record's next track, starts off very similarly to "Sea of Voices" by Porter Robinson, but monovoir is quick to make it his own with a lo-fi harp arpeggio.  The chorus features some tasty sidechained synths, and a sweet voice brings the track back to sweeping violin chords before bringing the chorus back with some 80's synth drums.  The tracks comes to a close with a pretty piano part.  "Limerence," the final track and easily the best produced, ends the album with a style very similar to Madeon's.  Big, thumping drums, fluttering arpeggios, and open, fuzzy melodies in a french house style with some chilled plucks and pianos in between make up "Limerence" and finish off the album on an inspirational note.

"Vibrance," while definitely not lacking in creativity and talent, falls a bit short on the mixing and mastering.  Additionally, it's rather short to be called an album, and I wish that monovoir had put out a few more tracks before disappearing for over a year.  What he has put out so far is still promising, however, and the ideas he presents are absolutely stunning.  If monovior ever makes a return, I'll be happy to see how he's progressed in a year.  6/10

Notable Remixes

Surprisingly, even though this album's been out for over a year, I can't find any remixes.  Be the first!