LE CARNAVAL DE L'APOCALYPSE

As a fan of classical and neoclassical music, I have always been intrigued by the compositions of Sébastien Gramond's where he treads into orchestral arrangements. Although all of his classical work is dominated by the use of a computer program as a result of lacking budget, some of the compositions have really shown promise and talent on Gramond's part for putting together some complex pieces. With 'Le Carnaval De L'Apocalypse', this is Gramond's fifth attempt in his virtual symphony series, and although parts of it show some strong moments of arrangement, I find myself not enjoying 'Carnaval' nearly as much as most of the other symphonic material Gramond has produced.

Chief among the problems is- as always- the execution of the music. While it is completely understandable as to why Gramond would not be able to hire a complete orchestra to bring these compositions to fruition, it is undeniable that the fake performance really, really takes away from the overall musicality and appreciation of the work. Even still, Sébastien Gramond admirably programs the arrangements, but it always sounds rather weak as a result of the MIDI production.

'Carnaval' is a fairly dark outing of music, making use of plenty of eeriee sounds and scales to get an aptly apocalyptic vibe across. However, the neoclassical charm that I heard with earlier virtual symphonies is not here. Instead of the interesting complexity in the orchestral arrangements that made some of them quite successful all things considere,d the music here is either dark ambient, or mixed with electronica instruments that may have worked as a one-off experiment, but certainly do not make up for the lacking complexity in the work that is now here.

A fair compilation of neoclassical composition here, although Sébastien Gramond has done much, much better in the past.