A rich tapestry of dreams and fears: The Ringmaster releases new dream pop opus, Viletin

A rich tapestry of dreams and fears: The Ringmaster releases new dream pop opus

by rick olivares

Francis Lorenzo aka the Ringmaster (who was a part of Sleepwalk Circus that has since got on hiatus) invites you to partake in his new album, Viletin; a rich tapestry of forbidden desires, Gaimanesque horrors, Kate Bush-like narratives, isolation, melancholia, and a ray of hope.

Three years in the making and five years after the Ringmaster released Delusion of Reference; his first solo album after Sleepwalk Circus went into a state of extended slumber, Viletin (Terno Recordings) is a deeply personal, haunting, and spellbinding dream pop album.

It is well worth the wait and when you play Viletin, you must put everything aside to take in the dense layers of deep prose and intricate and lush music. What sets the Ringmaster’s brand of dream pop apart from its peers is if others take you to different sonic landscapes and flights of fancy, with Lorenzo, it’s like providing music to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Neil Gaiman, and Peter S. Beagle to name but a few.

My copy of Viletin includes two discs – the second disc features outtakes -- and a 60-page booklet filled with fragmented musings from the wee hours of the morn as well as beautiful black and white artwork from a variety of artists that goes hand-in-hand with the music. I don’t believe you can have one and not the other. All that will help you delve deeper into the unfettered mind of Lorenzo and the emotions his songs evoke.

It’s like a graphic novel with a soundtrack. Or actually, soundtrack with a graphic novel; now that’s more accurate.

I like how Lorenzo collaborates with different female singers such as Evee Simon, Isabelle Romualdez, Aleph, Bijou, Megumi Acorda, and Lady Twish who each add their own gentle inflections and poignancy to the songs. As I am informed by Lorenzo, the album was intended to be a full collaboration with the other singers but only ended up with half. It doesn’t matter because I think the songs that the Ringmaster does by his lonesome are good too. The production is top-notch.

Earlier, we mentioned sainted English chanteuse, Kate Bush who broke the mold for recording artists especially females in the late 1970s for her deft use of narrative and shifting personalities from song to song. The Ringmaster does the same with aplomb.

“It will always feel silly (these diaries or songs),” as Lorenzo writes in the liner notes. Nonetheless, he bares himself. Different sides too.

In the second track, “In Perfect Melody,” it is a distant but near ringmaster who either cages the heart of one he desires or vice versa. You aren’t sure who holds who in thrall. But the torture in one’s emotions is clear.

In “Odds of Olympus,” the song talks about two different people looking for hope in a place where they don’t belong when they aren’t even sure if they believe. It’s a leap of faith one must take.

Whether the fourth track, “Atelo” seems personal about and is like one’s music masking the pain, sorrow, and neurosis of day to day life.

The rest of the album is like a peak into one’s fears, hopes, and dreams from different points of view.

And we are lucky we get to see this kind of work where music meets art and art meets music; making it a complete package.

Viletin will be launched on Friday, October 26, at Saguijo with copies of the album available in limited quantities.