Spacerock Reviews reviewed Vast Victory

Sakis Gouzonis – Vast Victory

Album Review by Ian Abrahams
Journalist & Music Critic for Spacerock Reviews
United Kingdom
Wednesday, 17 July 2013

This one is an electronic instrumental album that is somewhat outside of the scope of what's generally written about here and, I'll be honest, outside the sort of thing I'd normally listen to, the musician in question describing his starting-point in electronica as coming from "a compilation album produced in 1995 [that] contained tracks by Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis Papathanasiou and other talented electronic composers. I immediately fell in love with the electronic melodies, chords and beats." That's not an area that I've particularly explored in any depth aside from, and this is at a tangent probably but I discovered them concurrently with Jarre's UK singles chart success with "Oxygene," the French electronic / disco group Space (Didier Marouani) who I've always loved.

To be honest, what attracted me to listening to Vast Victory was not, then, its heritage of influences, but the highly organized and professional way that Gouzonis himself presents his work. Indeed, it was something of a breath of fresh air compared to some material that arrives for consideration sans any background data or sense of who the musicians themselves are. And, in listening to Gouzonis' work – though it's not sending me scuttling back to his influences and, for me, displays some of the problem that I have with electronic music of the Jarre or, particularly, Vangelis model in that I find it sometimes hard to really dig into the soul of the compositions – I have to say that it's vividly realized and music that I've stored and will no doubt listen to again.

From his biographical information then, Sakis Gouzonis is a Greek musician, resident in Elassona but born in Thessaloniki, on 16th March 1978. He's served in the Greek army and worked as an English teacher in a private school, but it seems that music is his primary focus these days, having released four albums previously, mostly in MP3 and on CD and becoming highly regarded in his native Greece while achieving recognition on international radio stations.

I'm possibly hearing some of Didier Marouani's style in Now I Am Free on this, his fifth LP – which naturally appeals – but it's an album with a wide remit. Be Like The Wind waltzes in gracefully like the soundtrack to a stylish musical before finding its electronic rhythms, and that sense of orchestral grace is displayed throughout the record, the smoothly refined elegance of This Land Is Yours, the quietly triumphant intro to I Am Your Provider, or the lush and optimistic You Are Not Alone. So, a lot more of this record worked for me than I'd anticipated and I'm very pleased to have heard it.

"I make music because music drives me more than food, sleep and sex," Gouzonis says. "I make music because it was one of my earliest comforts. I make music because I like to spread happiness. I make music because music is my breath. I make music because I am a musician. Music lifts the spirit up. But also just to enjoy the music, have fellowship and a good time!"