In spite of its grandiose length and total lack of words, BigDenBoo’s The Journey is an extremely enjoyable collection of cinematic arrangements and soundscapes that continually evolve and morph into one another in a dazzling display of creativity.
Curated and created by BigDenBoo, The Journey is the musician’s debut release in the making for about 2 years. Started as a purely experimental project in 2022, the music soon grew and took more shape as time went on, with the 3 or 4 separate pieces BigDenBoo worked on growing into this sprawling 1-hour-7-minutes album. The Paris-based artist is a musical veteran who first fell in love with the classic Roland synths in its heyday, his work on The Journey showcases a prime musical gift that could easily keep my attention pinned on all the instrumental and melodic details in each of this album’s 22 musical sketches.
The Journey unfolds as you would expect of a movie. The 22 pieces on the album move as if separate scenes, connected by a musical thread, an undercurrent defined by BigDenBoo’s production cues and his distinct ear for melody. The dynamics of the album also vary greatly. Between each of the album’s scenes, we find the hyped pieces with the pace all kicked up balanced by more ambient and introspective ones, all in creating such an enticing and gripping balance to the album. The Journey is about a sea crew taking on a challenging task. The album’s first third is set in a picturesque harbor city, Staoslam city, and prepares us for the journey ahead with a largely ambient introduction to the sounds of the album as well as its 2 main characters, Scott and Tyler.
The setting for some of the album’s busiest and most exciting pieces, the first leg of the journey is fast-paced and vividly colored. With cuts such as the fantastic ‘Staoslam City’ and its exotic percussion painting a lush scene of busy city streets, and ‘Market Place District’, dangerous and busy, such as the dense and dingy back alley market stands it attempts to portray, two of the album’s most spirited and electrifying offerings, bisected by the dramatic waltz of ‘Harbor Night’ in the album’s first outstanding scene. After a few peaceful pieces that disconnect us from the bustling sounds of the city, the crew embarks on the journey with another peaceful, ambient interlude of ‘Back to the Sea’ and ‘Nice Dreams Everyone’.
The second leg takes place in the swamps. The location for the album’s main struggle, this leg features the eerie chord changes and haunting ambience of ‘Blades Training’ and the bittersweet ‘Brother Shared Memories’, introducing us to the brotherly bond between the album’s 2 main characters. Whether biological or sentimental, this piece and its emotive power establish a bond between the listeners and Scott and Tyler. A bond that the album will continue to develop and test. ‘Entering the Swamps’ is an eerie and ambient set piece that showcases BigDenBoo’s cinematic abilities. With his synth pads, BigDenBoo paints a picture of imminent danger lurking around the corner and a slowly sailing boat taking its occupants into a dense and dark unknown.
Continuing with the dark and dangerous, Pink Floyd-like thick synth pads, this chapter progresses with more set pieces. Namely ‘The Fight’ and ‘Tyler’s Loss’, two pieces falling roughly in the middle of the album, introducing major advancements in the plotline. The slow and deliberate build and the melancholic subduedness of ‘Tyler’s Loss’ introduces such a heavy weight on the album that continues to thicken throughout the few following pieces. ‘Life Goes On’, ‘After Death’, and ‘The Void’ are three dark and ominous cuts that explore existential themes and explores the loss of Scott even further. Sweetly colored and sad, with a wealth of pads and soft synths, those pieces tremble along in the album’s darkest chapter.
The album’s final chapter kicks off with the unusually titled ‘Sailing Away from Hell’. With an unusual title and an intricate musical flow based on a hasty synth arpeggio and a few dissonant chord changes, this piece begins what could possibly be a supernatural element of the album. Did Scott come back from death or the hell just a metaphor for the journey coming to an end? We are not given any concrete answers, and the storyline is left for our imagination to fill. The sheer musical quirkiness tells me there’s something extraordinary unfolding, especially after the 3 previous pieces exploring a conceptual void and afterlife. Regardless, the music now sets foot back in the city. This time, decidedly darker, does still bustle with life and motion, but it is duller and more muffled, perhaps more mature, painted with the weight of the loss that happened. This grand journey of an album ends with ‘Intimate Captain’, a slow and elegant piece with a serene trumpet blaring in the background of the few sad chords. A poignant and introspective penultimate cut that takes us to ‘Scott’, the enigmatic closer. Is Scott back from death or is this last chapter all played from the perspective of his ghost? It does not matter. The album’s closer is tragic and infinitely soft. A remarkable end.
BigDenBoo’s journey tells a fascinating story with zero words. The hallmark of a talented composer, The Journey is a gripping listen that did not need lyrics to be gripping, to raise questions, to formulate emotional bonds, to introduce, and to take away characters, or to provoke feelings. A fantastic album that will not be easily forgotten by BigDenBoo.