Greek drummer, composer and producer Billy Prim has undeniably poured an incredible amount of passion, emotion and artistry into this latest project. The five-track EP emerges with the profound heart and soul of traditional folk, with instrumental simplicity designed to draw you in, and conceptual complexity fully intent on holding you captive until the end.
Enlightenment begins the journey, a haunting piano ambiance and sweeping audio details create a compelling and intensely real soundscape that quickly envelops you. It’s unsettling initially, and then the pace increases, and the intensity rises, and you contemplate the term enlightenment and the places this composition seems to be taking you as it breathes life into the room. By the end, there is a sense of optimism, and this switch is delicately achieved – almost unnoticeable, but the shift to a more positive energy is immense once you realise it.
Waves Of Emotion follows on and is quite stunning at this point, with its melodic softness and quiet. You can hear the weight of the keys, which helps create a sense of realness – like a live performance right there in the room with you.
As the piece progresses, flickers of double bass add a layer of free-flowing, unexpected and unconfined jazz, and the band proceed to create an ambiance that’s almost electronic in style but remains completely organic in reality.
Keep The Child Alive In You continues to further develop the feel and intention of this project. Subtleties meet with melodic outpourings, providing not just the music but the atmosphere and the moment within which to experience it. The story involves you, it embraces the listener, so you’re no longer alone at home but listening right there in the setting in which all of this was created.
This particular piece progresses to see changes in pace and some superb musicianship – a band united as one, lost in the energy but completely, professionally on point at every step. A magnificent composition and a personal favourite from this collection. The title and the experience walk hand in hand to a mesmerising degree.
Én Felkelék – a Hungarian folk song – is perhaps the most fully captivating of all. A calming and decidedly minimalist soundscape, a few waves of audio, accompanied and led by a delicate yet strong and expressive vocal. The native tongue proves intriguing and still inspiring even for those unfamiliar with the language – the power of the music and the performance overwhelms that of the words in some ways. As things build, subtle intricacies help further that Billy Prim creative reach that is so impossible to predict yet also so poignantly connected to the underlying sentiments.
Midnight Sea brings the EP to a relevantly interesting and impossible to predict finish. Security contrasts with uncertainty, stable moments of melody jar with sudden hits of rhythm and spontaneity. Meanwhile you can feel the strength of the title concept, these waves, this ocean surrounding you, the night sky dark and still above.
There’s very little, if anything, to compare this with at present. Billy Prim has let artistic desire and musical escapism guide the process entirely, and the result is an EP that paves its own way and refuses to adhere to expectation or industry standard. With each revisit, the music seems all the more beautiful and unique. A real pleasure to stumble upon.
Find & follow Billy Prim on Facebook & Instagram or visit his Website.
