- Mahogany Frog: Faust
(2022, cd, --, moonjune records)
I recently expanded my Mahogany Frog album collection with "Faust'.
Released in 2022 by the MoonJune Records label, "Faust"
Beautiful !!
Mahogany Frog’s Faust is an original score set to the eponymous 1926 German silent film. Directed by F. W. Murnau, Faust is widely regarded to be among the greatest films of the silent era. It tells the classic legend of fate and temptation that dates back centuries. In this, their latest offering, Mahogany Frog brings together their collective experience in composition, experimentation, electronics, intense rock & roll, and searing fuzz guitar. Together they weave a dark and diverse score around Faust’s brooding tale of corruption, devastation and redemption.
The music for Faust was initially written and rehearsed over the span of three months, culminating in a premier performance at the Roxy Theatre, a historic atmospheric cinema in Saskatoon. Three more performances in Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg followed. Accompanying the band on this tour was audio engineer Grant Trippel, who later recorded the studio sessions at EDR in February of 2020.
In the interim, Mahogany Frog worked on their seventh studio record Mahogany Frog In The Electric Universe. Following work on …Electric Universe, the live recordings were revisited and work on Faust began anew. Whereas …Electric Universe was tightly produced, polished and positive; Faust was envisioned as being dark, raw and emotional. Over the course of 12 months, sessions at four different studios yielded the raw materials for a dense and maximalist sonic tapestry. Final editing, mixing and mastering was completed over the next 3 months, first to picture and then for LP.
The mood of Faust is varied and complex. There are many faces of Mahogany Frog. Harsh noise, electronic drones, and pulsing textures flow in and out of dark and heavy, guitar-driven riffage. Soothing washes of melodic synth-pop flow through syrupy, languid organs only to be obliterated by the shrieks of the damned and the devil himself.
