Fervor by Daydream Society

Daydream Society is the solo project of Fort Wayne, Indiana based ambient musician Bryan Mullins. He first caught my ear with his 2015 release: For Now, a very impressive record that saw him use a traditional synth based sound to create some very uniquely lush soundscapes as well as some spectacularly vivid imagery. He released the follow-up to that project, Avulsion, this past January, and while it stayed true to that same sound found on For Now, it also saw him dig a bit deeper as an artist as he tried to define his stylistic direction a bit further.

If one thing can be said about both of the last two projects, it's how much I found the music correlated with the album art. The brightly lit neon city that graces the cover of For Now matches the vibrant synths of the album perfectly, and often times the music itself provoked the feeling of walking down a brightly lit city street on a dark rainy night. Meanwhile, the artwork for Avulsion is quite different, yet the wintery forest that you are presented with on the cover still manages to connect with the music quite well, as this time the sound is more of a warm blanket, enveloping you much like the bright sun that can be seen peaking through the aforementioned trees does to the forest.

So, what about the newest album, Fervor? This one was hard to get a read from by simply looking at the album art, but after hearing the first few songs, it becomes immensely clear what the artistic direction is. The project, which Bryan himself referred to as being "an album about love, without using any lyrics" is the darkest I've heard him get. The angry, dirty distortion on tracks like Daring to Deceive You and Fate or Fiction Pt. 2 feel both loud and abrasive when contrasting the hauntingly beautiful synths that occupy most of the other tracks, however when set against the backdrop of the shadows and darkness of the album's cover, it all seems to make complete sense.

While he has classified his previous projects as experimental, it wasn't until Fervor that I felt the tag truly belonged. The closing track The Best Dream of Your Life, a cut that comes in at nearly 7 minutes long, is a wonderful example of that. The extra slow pacing of the piece is wonderful, and while it's kicked off with the same buzzing atmosphere that you might expect, it's as the track progresses that we find surprises such as the ugly keys which manage to still boarder on being pretty in their own eccentric way. When that's mixed in with what appears to be a very sci-fi inspired sound, it creates one of my favorite tracks on the entire album. It was an ambitious decision to venture further into experimental territory, but fortunately the plethora of new sounds included on this record don't interfere with the same atmospheric nature that can be found on the rest of Daydream Society's projects. Even with some moments being more out there and unpredictable, the project as a whole remains very coherent and has it's own unique identity without alienating any of the elements found on older material. 

This is certainly the most ambitious Daydream Society album I've heard, and for each second of beauty and love, there's also a moment of sadness and despair, but after all, isn't that what love is? In many ways, I consider an ambient piece to be much like surrealism is in art. You may not be able to hear or feel exactly what the artist was thinking when creating it, but each listener will have their own interpretation of what's beneath the surface. For me, Fervor is a journey for both love and lust, a journey that has ups and down, and is equal parts alluring as it is tragic. Is Fervor Mullins' best project? Perhaps not, but it certainly is on par with the rest of his works. What it truly is however, is a sign of musical maturity and further development of what was already an incredible approach.

Rating: 4/5

You'll be able to download or stream Fervor on March 1st, over on Daydream Society's bandcamp page here. In the meantime, head over and check out some of his other material.