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People often describe music in terms of sonic imagery, audio visual landscapes and atmospheric soundscapes. However it is rare to find these terms as distinctively evident as they are on Free, the new album by the all star project OSI (Office of Strategic Influence). Songwriter and keyboardist Kevin Moore was an original member of progressive metal giants Dream Theater and since his departure from the band his name has become synonymous with an ever expanding cosmos of uneasy, often beguiling, but always intriguing sounds and dark atmospheres. Moores OSI collaborator, Jim Matheos is one of the founding members and main songwriters of Fates Warning, and like Moore he is a sound visionary with a perspective that goes far beyond the limits of progressive rock. OSI is a foundation for these two exceptional composers, who share an affinity for the extraordinary and who are travelling on the same wavelength. Their second release Free is augmented by guest musicians, Joey Vera (Fates Warning) and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), making it a line-up to make progressive metal fans ecstatic.
As with their self titled debut, the basic arrangements for the new songs were done by Matheos, who then forwarded his ideas onto Moore who in turn expanded upon them and allowed them to grow. More than with the first album I knew how OSI should sound and how it shouldnt sound states Matheos. Originally, our debut was planned to be a solo album, and finally it ended up as something completely unexpected. This time I concentrated on a particular result from the very beginning. Initially, Matheos worked on the songs in New Hampshire, while Moore worked between Istanbul and Montreal. In December 2005 both met with Portnoy in Connecticut to record the drums. Its interesting that this time the differences between original ideas and the final results are by far not as great as on the previous album says Moore.
In searching for songs on the new album, which define the OSI sound, the listener instinctively gravitates towards All Gone Now and Bigger Wave. These songs distinctly embody the stylistic range of the entire album, which ranges from heavy to soft and melancholic and deliberately crosses genre boundaries taking on a range of influences from Gary Numan (Go) to Kraftwerk (Once) to ambient sounds (Home Was Good).
All Gone Now and Bigger Wave in particular feature the heaviest elements as well as the most introverted moments, altogether offering a somewhat laid back feel Matheos confirms. He goes on to talk about one of the more unusual songs on the album, The making of the song Kicking was really very interesting: Actually the guitar riff for that song was a smaller, rather unimportant part of a completely different track. But Kevin had a particular vision for this guitar part and he asked me to play a few more chords in a similar way. From that he then created a whole new song.
Another track that could appear to be somewhat out of context with the rest of the album, which almost didnt make it, is Our Town. Based around a guitar accompaniment that could really be compared to Pink Floyd, this track sounds so pure and organic. This song is almost completely acoustic and without any programming Moore explains. We almost hadnt taken it into consideration for the record because it sounds so different in comparison to the other tracks. But in regard to atmosphere it matches well with the rest of the album and rounds things off nicely with its lyrics.
A concert tour is all that is needed now to perfectly complimenting the release of this highly original album. Fans have already been longing for live dates since the release of the bands debut. In closing, Moore promises: Though there are no concrete plans for a tour at the moment we are doing everything to make this a real possibility.
Free will be released as both a regular edition and a special edition housed in a slipcase, with extended booklet and a bonus disc featuring six tracks.
^Video for "Free"
