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Apophany

by Nick Vasallo

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    6-panel wallet with one CD

    Includes unlimited streaming of Apophany via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 1 day

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Free pdf booklet included
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Two 12" full-color picture vinyl disks, each with a full-color jacket.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Apophany via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 21 days
    edition of 100 

      $80 USD

     

1.
Ein Sof 07:25 video
2.
3.
The Prophecy 10:57
4.
ATUM 13:20
5.
6.
7.
Ozymandias 10:36
8.
9.

about

If you were to connect seemingly unrelated things – Heavy Metal and the symphony orchestra, for example – you might be guilty of apophenia. That friction between opposites has never been a problem for Nick Vasallo, though – his music is equally at home in both worlds. Melding Xenakis, Varese, Extreme Metal, and Dark Ambient with gothic charm, Vasallo conjures up a muscular sonic battle that leads you on an inexorable musical journey to a conclusion where surrender is your best option.

Catharsis comes as a relief in his new album, Apophany (the follow-up to his Monuments Emerge of 2012): 79 minutes of varied orchestral and chamber works seared to the bone with a Metal edge. It strikes with precision (Vasallo is a certified martial artist, after all) and uses a refined timbral palette with filmic orchestral mastery to powerful effect.

The programmatic themes in Vasallo’s titles combine sources of ancient wisdom with contemporary spiritualism. The Eternal Return refers to Nietzsche’s challenge to imagine that every action one makes will repeat for all eternity. This track leads to The Moment Before Death Stretches on Forever, Like an Ocean of Time – a reference to the 1999 movie American Beauty: the monologue that closes with “and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.”

With epic performances from a variety of university orchestras and new music ensembles (including Red Shift, Wild Rumpus, and The Living Earth Show), Apophany is as gritty as it is satisfying. This is music for the metaverse, bedroom headphones, and giant auditoriums; but maybe not the parlor.

Bay Area native Dr. Nick Vasallo picked up the electric guitar while in high school and formed Antagony, later credited as birthing a popular subgenre of metal music called “deathcore”. A graduate of California State University, East Bay, Vasallo completed his doctorate at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Honors include the American Prize, International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition, and the San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices award.

credits

released March 18, 2022

Composed and produced by Nick Vasallo.
Recorded, edited, mixed, and mastered by
Nick Vasallo, Zack Miley, and Zack Ohren.
Track 9 mastered by Erdem Helvacıoğlu.
Cover image by Claudatte Snyder ©2021
Photo by Denise Vasallo
All music published by Nick Vasallo Publishing (ASCAP) ©2022
Designed by Philip Blackburn

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about

Nick Vasallo

Award-winning composer, teacher, vocalist and guitarist, Nick Vasallo is "a composer on a mission and one possessed of a distinctive voice" - Michael Quinn, 2012 (The Classical Review). His music exhibits "strokes of genius that blend the density of heavy metal with the harmonics of gamelan, the polyrhythms of taiko, and atonality." - François Couture, 2012 (Monsieur Délire) ... more

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