Greg Fenton reviews Adam Wiltzie and Jóhann Jóhannsson – Friendship Survival Guide – Deutsche Grammophon
Being lost for words may not be the ideal starting point when trying to express thoughts on such an involving piece of music and yet it is probably entirely fitting when it comes to Friendship Survival Guide. Which at a guess sounds like the intention is about communication between like-minded individuals or more wholesomely for the collective mind.
It proves to be a lonely journey into existence at times contrasted by the swirl of hope conceived on numbers such as Dazed And Reflective Glory (Pt.1), evolving breathing life into its unfolding narrative, generated by a host of synthesised orchestration and driven by an intense musicality that speaks and sings without pause, in place of words.
Poignantly, the album reflects and celebrates Adam Wiltzie completing a decade-old collaboration with the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. Further collaboration comes from electronic musician Tim Hecker, the late producer Steve Albini, and Grammy Award-winning engineer Francesco Donadello.
Most of the pieces are comparatively short-form, apart from the eight-minute Soft Favourites, which extends the hand of serene pleasure as an art form. The closing message reaching out to the cosmos is the likewise wondrous Where You Are Now, Voyager.
Epically charged whether short or expanded, the essence of the music can be as cutting as it is reassuring in a hushed world of lost souls. A true voyage of discovery.
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