Misha Panfilov - Days as Echoes
Misha Panfilov’s Days as Echoes is a sonic journey from the concrete world to the abstract. Carried by the blossoming instrumentation, we leave habits, routines, and obligations to enter the carefree and beatific realm of dreams and memories.
Much like the overwhelmingly beautiful painting on the album cover; jazz, library music, ambient, and Ethiopian influences are the brushstrokes that come together to paint such aural bliss. It’s among the most pleasant things I’ve listened to.
Played at the tempo of nature unfolding, each track achieves its cinematic soundscape with a central melody that ponders through the compositions. The subtle interplay between bass, keyboards, guitars, flute, and saxophone over a shuffling drum pattern blossoms the melody with each pass. This is exemplified in the title track, where the unfoldment of the instrumental layering echoes how memories rest atop one another, influenced by each other, and altered each time they’re recalled.
“In a Dream” crosses the threshold of worlds, where mirages solidify and matter dematerialises. A dance between bass and keyboard lowers us into this shifting vista, the melody obscured by warbling electronics the deeper into this dream we go.
A bright and weightless keyboard melody twinkles over the dancing clouds of the bass riff in “Moonscape Waltz”. Embodying different nocturnal vibes, the stillness of the night is accentuated by the sharp guitars cutting through it, while the sleepless buzz of night vibrates off the languorous sax. The keyboards land over both with the softness of moonlight.
Like hands intertwined, flute and sax play the tender melody of “Together”, which is picked up by the keyboard so the sax can soar, wheel, and flutter in and out of the composition. The lightness of time spent in the company of a loved one comes through the solos, which twirl through the air like autumn leaves falling to the ground.
The tempo picks up with “A Few Layers for Smith” as the keyboard and bass zigzag around each other, with flourishes and additional melodies layered over each other until the flute completes the image of sunlight glittering over water.
The ethereal cheeriness of the album suddenly rages with perilousness on the closing track, “Ocean Song”. Piano and bass carry an odd and mechanical riff that signals impending trouble, while the keyboards expand over the listener like a vast and unforgiving sky over a tiny vessel pushed out to the boundless blue. Oscillating electronic effects and guitar feedback crash and foam like waves against the side of this boat. As the listener disappears, swallowed by the horizon, a cascading sax brings the whole thing to a triumphant close.
The track list and how the vibes shift from one to the next make the listening experience feel like an ascent up some dreamy landscape. It’s only once we reach the end that we realise we’ve been wide awake the whole time.
