Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
No matter where we find the best place to be seen Positioning The Sun, we must make sure that the no shadows can be observed spoiling the view; they can enhance it, add a flavour, texture, a sense of the dramatic and illusion, but the view must never be soiled for the want of darkness in the wrong and unwanted place.
Vittorio Tolomeo, also regaling the listener in the guise of Quarry, brings together a set of songs that have the sense of the mystic awakening attached to them, as if forcing himself and the listener awake after a period of darkness, of shadows, of being enamoured by the shades of wrath that came in the guise of pestilence, plague and unrelenting posturing and panic. It is in this re-awakening that we hope to enjoy, and Quarry certainly adds sentience and exploration to the unfolding drama that his record hopes to inspire.
Across the hymnal rock like salutations of Beyond Any Sense, New City Comes Along, the seismic single of Kick The Void Outside, Breathe The Stars, and Flash Of Lightning, Quarry digs deep into the emotions, the range of fears, anger, rage, and moments of peace that have come forcibly into our collected lives in the last few years. No one has escaped without some sort of harm imposed on body, mind, or spirit, and it is to those who can create art and who are unafraid, filled with courage, that we must turn if we are to rebuild; and what better to seize the momentum but by Positioning The Sun in our favour, casting shadow and darkness out.
The Italian-born, London-based musician strides purposely through the album’s measured and focused ideas, and with a calm assuredness that belies and takes issue with the way our souls have been stolen by damaged and evil’s intent, of the placing into boxes rather than allowing freedom to prosper, the position of the fireball in the sky, the life giver, is one that we look up to, and feel its warmth on our skin, in our hearts. Position it anyway you can, for as long as it contains the message of hope it can be seen wherever we stand to focus our attention upon.
A carefully constructed release, set out to achieve harmony, and fulfilling with aplomb.
Quarry’s Positioning The Sun is out now.
Ian D. Hall