Released in September 28, 2021, Festina Lente is 9 tracks of galactic-inspired instrumentals — ranging from symphonic retrowave, to straight-up 1980s-inspired synthwave, to world fusion downtempo. The 9 tracks are dense, multilayered, mostly midtempo, attesting to my refusal to be bored by anything in the tracks.
The Concept of Opposing Forces
The idea behind the album is to mix two contradictory forces. What happens then? Gravity and flight? Positive and negative ions? Speed and inertia? You end up with a result that is way more interesting than one or the other. It is, after all, the tension between Earth and Moon that creates the beautiful rhythm of the tides.
In fact, the idea of opposing poles extends to the album title.
The Meaning of the Latin Title
Festina Lente, is Latin for “Make haste, slowly,” and is a classical oxymoron bringing together two contradictory statements. Which is what the album does. Throughout the 9 tracks, the music seeks to bring together two opposing sentiments: grief and joy, hope and despair, organic and manufactured, electronic and orchestral, outer space and inner void.
The Mood of Festina Lente
Every journey begins with a single step. Every album is a response to the previous release — in this case, the grief-ridden Requiescat In Pace, which dealt with my father’s passing. Festina Lente then is my way of turning away from the dark and focusing on what light is left around us. And inspired by the mundane limitations of a life lived within a global pandemic, I tried to make music that would transport me — and hopefully every listener — beyond our globe, to other planets and other realities, and beyond our current state of mind.
Credits
Released September 28, 2021
All music production, sequencing, arrangement, and art: Lionel Valdellon.