VS3

Known primarily for his work with jazz fusion, it's no secret to anyone that has listened to the music of Sébastien Gramond that the man is highly varied in his styles, often cycling through a list of genres over the course of one album. Being exposed to Gramond's dabbling with classical orchestration and experimental music on his 'Sebtronics' compilation, 'VS3' was an album I looked forward to listening to. Essentially taking his creativity and composing a symphony arrangement, 'VS3' does show some remarkable composition skills from Gramond, but the overall album is unfortunately marred by the virtual orchestration and an unnecessary final two tracks.

While there are six tracks on this album, the only matter of real interest is the 'Virtual Symphony #3', which spans the first four tracks as one running composition. Being twenty minutes in length, there is quite a dense and complex piece of music that the man has composed, but unfortunately due to a lack of funds, this promising composition of Gramond's is forced to bear through the virtual treatment. Despite having all of the complexity of a real symphony, the actual performance is programmed through a computer; no actual instruments are ever used here. With this in check, the actual sound itself is very fake and feels incredibly undeserving of what is otherwise a very good composition. That being said, the cold and mechanical nature of the virtual orchestrations does work at some pints to give a very haunting, schizoid sound to the more complex and eerie portions of the work. '3rd Movement' is certainly the most interesting section here. Towards the end of the symphony, electronic dance beats are thrown in as well, which sadly feel out of place in a neoclassical composition, and while working with the existing virtual sound, seems to take some class away from it.

The final two tracks here feel like unnecessary afterthoughts to the symphony, but they are surprisingly good afterthoughts. 'You'd Better Stop' has some annoying video game electronics in it, but there is some of the best guitar soloing I've heard from Gramond here. 'Lost My Mind' is fairly forgettable and listless, but some sections of it have some great bass riffs to them, as well as noise experimentation that reminds me of grindcore.

A disappointing album? Perhaps, but it's evident that Gramond's composition and skill at arrangement deserve a much better treatment than this.

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