Marian Lohnick – “Symphonica #2” – Plenty of orchestral layers to create complex and epic atmospheres
Three years after releasing the album “Symphonica #1”, Marian Lohnick has completed and released its follow-up, “Symphonica #2”. Marian Lohnick is an established DJ and Producer with a bent towards House music. He created the “Marian Lohnick” project as he had become demotivated producing, what he calls the “same” music. He states that he needed an escape to refresh his ideas, which of course fitted in nicely with his sensitivity towards classical and orchestral music. “It all started with some random melodies, and with adding more and more instruments, I noticed that I just created some meaningful sounds,” explains Marian Lohnick. “I found the creative process very relaxing and at this moment I even enjoy it more than producing my typical house music.”
The result is the 6 track, cinematically inclined, and orchestral based instrumental album, “Symphonica #2”, which boasts piano driven melodies, dynamic arrangements and billowing atmospheres. Like many people, I love listening to music. I enjoy music from many different genres – alternative, rock, jazz, pop, EDM, hip hop, R&B, instrumental – you name it.
And certainly, I listen to quite a bit of orchestral music from symphonies to film scores. But it’s hard to love all classical or orchestral music because sometimes they are so complex and inaccessible to the untrained ear.
Probably due to his EDM roots, Marian Lohnick gets the formula just right – there are plenty of orchestral layers to create complex and epic atmospheres, but at the same time he designs accessible and simple melodic motifs upfront, to hold the attention of even the most uninformed listener.
From the moment it kicks off with the percussionist drive of “Starlight”, the album “Symphonica #2” feels like the score for a suspense/adventure film. Marian Lohnick weaves interpretations of each theme above a dominant pulse, forming a tapestry from an elegant melody, resurfaced with rich harmonic backdrops.
Time and again, Marian Lohnick reaches for some grand shift or climax before settling back down or switching to a new sonic idea through a slightly different framework. These are interesting compositional exercises that captivate the ear.
Instead, on “Impending Doom”, the composer maintains a somber mood, further enhanced by minimal instrumentation locked together by the nuance piano and resonating strings. There are many evocative moments, too, especially when the pianos, strings and horns lock into deep, passing grooves that reflect spirited conversation, not circumstantial crosstalk, as they do on “Apocalypse”.
Over the course of “Lost In Space”, the continuous movements, repeating melodic motives and chord cycles form expansive, gradually evolving musical textures, as the music glides through these rich and ominous timbral flourishes with the utmost sensitivity and precision. “Kings of the Mountains” predominantly uses the piano to shape and shade each pattern with artistry and finesse – making this deceptively buoyant piece sound deceptively easy.
The album comes to a close with “Fantasy” and its kaleidoscope of sound, resembling a pointillist painting of constantly shifting sophisticated musical patterns and melodies. The rich textures, the ultra-cool instrumental precision and the soothing resonance, gives this track a calming beauty.
“Symphonica #2” presents you with music you can really get inside of, that seems to endlessly unfold from within itself via deceptively simple melodies and spiraling patterns of interlocking rhythms and backdrops. Engaging, intelligent and perfectly transcendent, the album reveals new depths with every listen.
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