Continuum

Continuum

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
The music of Fractal is electric - sometimes heavily riffing, sometimes lyrical and delicate. Occasionally complex but, above all, filled with emotional intensity. Fractal revels in the art of creating richly textured, layered sounds (on the album as well as on stage), making extensive use of challenging musical structures. Fractal's expressive sound is propelled by Jim's talents in sonic sculpture (creating a swirling wall of sound while playing bass guitar). Nic's virtuous electric guitar coupled with guitar-driven synthesis and looping allows for a rich accumulations of texture. Paul's energetic drumming is combined with a mastery of the medium of V-drumming (with its wide palette of percussive and other sounds).

Fractal first convened in November of 2000 (thanks to a friend, Adrian Cockcroft, who posted an invite on Paul's behalf on King Crimson enthusiast site Elephant Talk) in San Jose, California. Nic and Jim were the first two to reply, and strangely enough the three have been together since then. It was more than a little fortuitous that such an unlikely grouping (Paul having just moved from the UK, Jim from Baltimore, and Nic from the Netherlands) has resulted in such a well-balanced complement of talents and musical personalities.

Fractal started gigging in summer of 2001 and has continued intermittently ever since. In July of 2002, we started recordings for our first CD, Continuum.

Product Description
The debut Fractal album Continuum takes the listener on a journey through a progression of musical styles, emotional states, and sonic territories. The opening track Fractional embarks from a solid prog-rock idiom, concluding with an emotional coda, Reflexion. Immediately abandoning the familiar, they launch into intense ensemble improvisation in Prominence, veering through some frightening tonal terrain. An idiosyncratic take on heavy metal follows, in Turgidus Maximus. The exploration of dance in odd time with the single-length Rave7, its incessant 'army of guitar' riffing introducing elements of trance. Along with Particle Wave, where rapid dance-rhythm drumming contrasts with layered atmospheric textures and reflective melodies, it effects a transition into the contemplative and serene loop-based Echo Chamberlain Suite. Fractal Countdown, one of Fractal's first group compositions, in spite of an unrelenting succession of shifting meters, ultimately achieves a spontaneous groove. Continuum, the final track, presents the most emotionally charged song on the album, through the combination of heavy-rock driving riffs and haunting melodic soundscapes.

Continuum,Fractal,Fractal,Richly textured and layered, challenging musical constructs holistically rock both body and mind. Fractal dials in infectious grooves, swirling soundscapes, angular riffing amidst serene and contemplative songs laden with emotional intensity.,Rock/Pop

Rock Music

Continuum

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