Patrick Krief - Skylines
Indica Records
Released September 8th, 2023
My first listen of Skylines by Patrick Krief took me by surprise.
I was expecting a good record, there is no doubt about that, but this exceeded those one-dimensional expectations. Skylines is said to be “a more mature and deeply personal vein than anything [he] has done before” and I can absolutely see why.
My main takeaway from listening to this album was that he takes time with you. As the listener, you can feel that Patrick is connecting with you and revealing parts of himself and his life to you that are vulnerable and important. There is no rush and there is no time limit; there is only calm. In fact, there is nothing but time for him to take you on a storytelling journey, an immersive and purposeful ‘letting in’.
This record is classical, it is jazz, it is cavernous, yet it is hopeful, and beautiful, and light. It may sound confusing that a record could do both things at once, but somehow Patrick Krief is able to do it. He is balancing two worlds in both his life and his music. Skylines is “an album filled with hope and serenity in the face of a chaotic world” and Krief himself tells us that “The title is intended to evoke the feeling of laying on your back and looking up at the sky.” Which it succeeds greatly in doing. There is no question about the fact that you could listen to this laying in a field, watching the clouds float by and the wind shake the naked tree branches and think about how far we are from peace, yet how peaceful we can still become.
This record feels like a melancholic movie score, something you would have heard years ago accompanying a meaningful motion picture in the theatres. Every song is purposeful, and every production decision was clearly well thought out. Patrick makes great use of all the instruments accompanying his single voice, especially the horns, and this craftwork along with sentimental lyrics, invokes an intense sentimentality that cannot be escaped nor denied.
This is the first record Patrick Krief has put out under his name, which is a very vulnerable thing to do. But really, when you are releasing something so close to home, so descriptive of all you are and everything you have been through; what other choice is there?
-Krystle McGrath
