f.e. denning: cities of light

Following several cassette releases since 2011, F.E. Denning now presents Cities of Light, his vinyl debut and his best work to date. The compositions and emotions are more complex than ever before, and with his signature endless pools of synth drones and melodies cascading over each other, he draws out a perfectly paranoid image of a modern metropolis. The equal measures of beauty and horror that occupy the modern sleepless machine cities are presented in a blurred narrative over the record's five pieces. Cities of Light feels neither for nor against the concept of mega-city that it displays; the record feels more like someone accepting the state of things, accepting that soon the sunrise will be broadcast on billboards because of smog layers. Accepting that even with millions and millions of people there are no familiar faces appearing in the masses. That the city has become an organism of its own and that any fighting against it has already been integrated into its system. Cities of Light is a beautiful and cinematic drone record, a new level for the work of F.E. Denning, and a very precise portrait of how it feels to be alone with millions around you.