Artist:     Darryl Way

Album:     Destinations

Label:     Right Honourable Records

Release Date:     3.15.20

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Those who choose to fly Destinations, the new all-instrumental progressive-rock album from Curved Air violinist and composer Darryl Way, may experience some turbulence. Conceived as an aural journey to places real and imagined, Way’s latest solo record is another attempt at programme music, as he describes it. His last ambitious outing, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in Rock, was similarly inspired and impressionistic, intent on creating immersive atmospheres for adventurous sonic explorers.

Destinations is even more diverse and interesting, building worlds that are cinematic in scope while adding details—often through the judicious use of sound effects—that only serve to make the experience more visceral. Take the frantic, gleaming “Downtown L.A.,” which races through dark streets at high cyberpunk speeds with sirens going off in the distance. Industrial clanks and hammers help bring the futuristic “Metropolis” to life, while “The Stars” is silvery and spacious, gliding easily into the epic space-rock cosmos of latter-day Pink Floyd with eyes full of wonder. The spirit of Ennio Morricone drifts through “The Wild West,” but instead of exotic spaghetti western mystery, Way opts for more orchestral grandeur and expansiveness in his widescreen cowboy scenes. It’s a different approach that works for Way.

Dynamic surges, angry boils and simmers and the occasional oasis of soothing calm dot the soundscapes of Destinations, as the dreamy samba of “Riviera Blue” floats on, “The Restless City” is riddled with anxiety and tension and “Mystic Mountain” yearns for a spiritual escape to somewhere remote, far away from the madding crowd. Way’s violin stabs and slashes, often resembling both wild sword play and elegant fencing in the same piece, but it can also stretch out like the saving hand of God and express tortured longing in sustained passages. His playing is alternately smooth and violent, and here, for the first time, Way throws himself into the guitar, nicely stitching together complex figures and moving them in concert with Pete Skinner’s imaginative drumming and Richard Mead’s undulating bass work, as well as his own violin machinations. Book a trip with Destinations. It might be the only form of international travel available in these uncertain times.

—Peter Lindblad