The architect behind Pale Cremation, Matt Lasserre, invites listeners on a unforgettable dreamlike exploration through various post-punk/new wave, avant-garde and progressive rock arrangements on his solo release titled, “Jungian House Dream.” Once again, Matt demonstrates his diverse artistic mindset while traversing across these vivid sounding musical landscapes with such keen attention to detail.
Over the years that I have come to know Matt, I have witnessed him really expand upon his musical ideas with vigorous fascination, thus allowing him to compose some unbelievably creative sounding releases. “Jungian House Dream,” is definitely one of his most ambitious and out off this world creations to date, which is why I was instantly drawn to the release after hearing a preview track. The post-punk and new wave elements conjure up some very dreamy and space like atmospheres, while the progressive rock arrangements add a dynamic flare to the overall sound.
From the very start, the album dives deep into the world of dreams and human psyche with a strong emphasis on progressive rock ethos driving the creation of a lot of the instrumental arrangements. The opening song, “Love Pill Theme,” is very new wave sounding from the opening electronic noises to the mesmerizing layers of synth. Along with the synths Matt throws in some post-punk influenced guitar work, and the notes vividly ring out in such a hypnotic fashion. Compared to work in Pale Cremation, I felt as thought there was more emphasis was placed on the how he was able to bring together all these different sounding elements, especially since the music feels almost cinematic at times. The second track off of the album, “Couloirs De Terreur Et De Decadence,” continued to build-up the opening song's heavy synth emphasis, but also added some progressive/avant-garde rock guitar lead touches towards the end.
Of course, Matt does incorporate song heavier elements into the album and on the song, “Architectural Model of the Psyche,” he conjures up more of an old school Sabbath like sound, which I thought really stood out and happened to be one of my favorite pieces of music off of the album. The song’s main riff sounded truly monumental with its Iommi-esque sonically devastating sound that instantly captures your attention. On the song, “Visitation,” you can hear a more industrial/thrash metal edge featuring more adrenaline pumping distorted riffs of high octane aggression that slightly reminded me of Matt’s time in the band Scrape the Earth. Eventually the music mellows out and transitions into a more calming almost transcendental direction, which ties into the experimental synth arrangements that tend to be guiding the listener throughout the release at various points.
Throughout the album you are constantly enthralled by the various arrangements and different audio clips detailing human consciousness and the power of dreams. “Jungian House Dream,” is an album that I find comes from years of unyielding passion and an individual’s desire to bring out musical concepts that they have fondly amassed over years of being a open minded artist. Matt really took his time crafting this album by making sure each guitar riff, bass line, and synth made a distinct impact, so in the end listeners can experience a release that does not sound like a lot of what you are hearing from the rock/metal world today. I would highly recommend people give this album a listen, especially if you are open to progressive rock music infused with some post-punk, synthwave, new/wave, as well as some metal touches from one creative individual.
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